How much is enough?

I read an article in the Times of India a couple of days back, on an experiment conducted to determine why human beings are hoarders and what motivate them to do so.. According to the news report, a control group were offered certain amount of chocolate provided they listen to harsh sound for a predetermined period of time. Another group was created formed and given the same offer, but the chocolate offered was lesser per unit of time than that of the first control group.

Both groups were then evaluated on how much chocolate they could eat. And then they asked them to take the test. Both groups were then evaluated based on the number of hours they could bear the sound and handed over the chocolates.

Findings were that both the low earning as well as high earning (in terms of chocolate) groups had overestimated the amount of chocolate that they could eat and it seemed that irrespective of the reward (amount of chocolate per unit time), both groups spent approximately the same time bearing the sound.

This points out to the surmise that humans in the face of a gain in lieu of unpleasant work tend to accumulate as much as they can, and at the same time overestimate how much of the rewards they can actually consume.

This got me thinking on a conversation that I had with a couple of my colleagues around a month back in Pune. The discussion revolved around the scams due to which our politicians come under the spotlight. The figures of the scam of course run into hundreds of crores if not thousands. The freewheeling debate got into an estimation of what you could buy with the money. While some said that they could buy an island, a few others opined that even after buying fancy yatches, an island or any number of Rolls Royce's, the fact was that the staggering amount that the scams run up to, the money would be in excess to what one could possibly accumulate and more importantly one could actually enjoy.

In almost all religions and faiths of the world, a common line is that, we come into this world empty handed and will leave empty handed. In view of this very true truth, one wonders as to when we should say enough to accumulation of wealth and actually start enjoying or using it for a good cause. Probably this is why Bill Gates, after fighting for world wide domination in operating systems, who in the process, ruthlessly crushed most of his competition, is today donating much of his wealth through the Bill and Melinda foundation.

In the course of our lives, we are offered many choices which may or may not be in alignment with what we want in life. It is up to us, what we choose. Do we choose a road that will give us fabulous wealth, but make us hate each and every day at work, or will it give us enough to sustain a decent lifestyle but leave us with enough time and energy to pursue things and activities that are close to our hearts.

The choice is always ours.

On working under pressure.

Ships which are driven by the wind, the ones with sails have always fascinated me. Human ingenuity took what was supposed to be a hurdle, the wind, and made it into an asset, by aligning the ship's sails to catch the wind. I guess that's what people may construe with the saying " Go with the  tide". I have a slightly different take here. I say convert liabilities into assets by changing the way we handle them.

Taking an analogy out out of the sail boat example, let's talk about pressure, work or other wise. When we take on pressure head on, it's literally a job stopper, whereas if we understand the nature of the pressure, it's intensity, it's velocity, it's direction, we can align our sails (efforts) so that we catch the wind and not buttress it.

So how do we go about achieving it. The first step is to classify the pressure. Broadly 3 types:

1. Man
2. Machine
3. Time

Lets take the first one:

Man
Even a hermit has to deal with at least one man during his working life, himself. Most often than not, we are our own source of pressure. Unreasonably high expectation of oneself leads to this kind of pressure. The source of this unreasonably high expectation is half knowledge about our capabilities and most often than not, having an external frame of reference of oneself, that is seeing ourselves through the eyes of others. The result, self induced pressure that we blame on "peer pressure".

The fact of the matter is that no body is really bothered about you, and the fun fact is that we always think otherwise.

You might argue that your boss, customer, supplier is putting undue pressure on you on some work which is impossible to achieve, but that is not a factor of the person but on the next two factors given below.

Machine
"What is a machine?", this is a line from one of the most unarguably great films made in the decade, "3 Idiots". The answer given by the protagonist is that any device that makes life easier or simpler, is a machine. Taking that thought forward, let's not stop at devices, but move on to attitudes, systems and processes.

If one thinks on what makes great companies great, the first thing that comes to our mind is that they are efficient machines who harness the potential of human beings using fantastic systems that automate / remove non value added work thus leaving time for individuals to be creative and use this creativity to push companies on new growth paths.

A human being is also a machine, we have organs that work as individuals in a team and our brain creates the systems and processes to keep this wonderful machine humming along. If our body can do this without our explicit knowledge, why cant we create, develop and enhance systems and processes that makes our lives easier.

A simple diary (paper or excel) to start off with can make life simpler. 2 sections, one for personal and the other for professional entries. Start the day by jotting down major milestones for the day and then gradually increase the time horizon to a week, month, year. This gives an infallible edge when speaking to your boss, customers or suppliers. Since you are very clear on what goals you need to achieve and by what time, you can always take stake holders into confidence on what are the goals, what needs to be done and when. When people buy into your goals, they are aligned to your requirements. Remember what sails do?

Time
"Time and tide wait for no man", says a popular proverb. Times are never the same. Time is the only constant. Everything changes with time. The first two factors, man and machine can change over time. Yesterday's goals and priorities may not be the same or relevant today. The only way to leverage this is to accept it and move forward.

Every day is a new beginning. Start your day with a fresh slate. It is good to know history as it inspires one to reach beyond oneself, and also gives us a perspective of how fallible humans are. But that is what history is for. It shows where the speed bumps are, where the inclines and ravines are. It is left to us whether we want to ride over the ravines or fly over it.

Lost in translation

How many times do we worry about whether what we have communicated to our colleagues, friends and family is interpreted in the right way and communicated to people down the line in an accurate and reliable manner? The most probable answer is “A lot”.

The reason is simple. The distance between the ear, eye and mouth is at least four fingers wide! Let me elaborate. Man is a social animal. He believes what he sees and what he hears. He will speak what his brain has interpreted as the truth based on what he sees and hears. However when one communicates there are a number of things other than speech which affects the listener. The first and foremost is what is popularly called “Body language”. The way our hands move in tandem to our speech is a dead giveaway.  More often than not it is body language which will determine whether what we intend to communicate has indeed been accomplished in the same measure and extent. More on that in a later article.

More often than or not, in today’s fast pace of life, we tend not to look for and understand whether what we intend to communicate has indeed been received and understood by the recipient. Taking a leaf out of the military  whenever an oral communication is given on wireless, the recipient repeats the message and thereby acknowledges that he / she indeed understands what has been communicated. Repeatation has one more advantage. It reaffirms the communication in the recipients mind.

In school, we learnt the alphabets and numbers by mindless repeatation, writing, reading and speaking. While it is not advisable to go completely the rote way, it is noteworthy to understand that our Vedas and Shastras were communicated since time immemorial through the oral route, from Guru to Shishya. The focus was , small group size, one to one communication and implicit trust of the Shishya in the knowledge of the Guru.

The recipient of any dialogue will internalize the speaker’s words only when he trusts the speaker, when he feels that the speaker is directly addressing him.  This is what makes great public speakers great. They are able to connect to each and every person in the audience and makes them feel that he is addressing them or their concerns. This is a skill as well an art.

To recap, effective communication hinges on

-         -  Inflection, tone

-          - Body Language

-          - Level of engagement

-          - Trust

Push v/s Pull based Management

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all

"How very true", was my first reaction when i read what the famous Dwight D. Eisenhower once remarked, I imagine to a group of his officers when drawing up battle plans against the third Reich. Today, times have changed and so have the circumstances that must have inspired Eisenhower to make that remark, but it is as relevant today as it were a couple of decades back.

"Lets push sales this month". "Lets give it a final push", are quite common remarks that we hear these days in corporate boardrooms or discussions and meetings. Probably what the boss always wants to hear is that you are willing not only to push others but also yourself in that respect to accomplish the task.

"So what's wrong with that?" , would be the next question and to be frank, nothing. But there is always a better way of doing something and this is probably how

We have all heard about the lean system of manufacturing wherein a "Pull" based system ensures that there is production just to meet demand. in other words, least inventory, which in turn improves profitability by eliminating "waste". but in order for this to work, the employee workforce must be highly motivated to ensure that quality is maintained not only in the final product, but also in each step or process as only this will ensure that the system will work.

When we extend the same concept to managing relationships in a business, it becomes imperitive that in order for any target to be met, the team must first be highly motivated to take "ownership" of his particular aspect of work that is contributing to the whole. Easier said than done, but definitely simpler than most of us think

Ownership is a very fickle thing. For the team to have ownership means that they have the authority to create and change certain aspects without having to take excessive approvals from management. Also this is possible only when the management is very mature in its thinking and that means that it is also not insecure

Insecurity is often the bane behind over control or micro management wherein the team's creativity is subjected to intense pressure as there is a push to conform to the organization way of thinking. Read management way of thinking.

In order to reduce insecurity, a very clear succession path must be evolved not only for the team but also for managers wherein the KPI should not only mean meeting targets, but also organization development and succession management.

hence in order to implement the pull system, change must be Top - bottom. Wherein gradually, a team is given broader scope of responsibility wherein they have to "Self-manage" and management will only play the role of a mentor or advisor.

In doing so, all routine & semi-strategic work can be thus "outsourced" to the working team, thus freeing up resources for more strategic thinking at the management level.

In other words, as Ricardo Semler puts it, the true mark of a great organization is not what the company can achieve in the presence of a CEO, but what it can achieve when there is no CEO

In short Pull people and they will follow wherever you wish and Push it always and they will go nowhere at all!

"The bridge across forever"

One of the most profound authors that I've ever read has been Richard Bach. An ex Airman who took up writing books, amongst his books, it was Jonathan Livingstone Seagull which actually propelled his thrust into stardom.

JLS is based on a seagull's quest to reach beyond itself, and its discovery that there is always another level to surpass, which became a runaway best seller. In fact I was about 15 when I first read JLS which I found when I was running through my dad's stuff in the attic. He had bought this book when he was around the same age as I am today. I must have read it a minimum of 100 times since then and each time I've been touched and inspired in a different way always.

But my favourite amongst these favourites has been, "A Gift of Wings " wherein Bach is a barnstormer(in fact he did work as a barnstormer) and his disovery that there is something beyond the apparent which is, well not so apparent!

I've always loved the sense of freedom that flying offers and I would love to one day take up a micro light into the air, switch off the engines and glide down noiselessly back to Earth. The next best thing would ofcourse be "free fall" which again is some thing I would look forward to.

Today I look around and see my friends and collegues frittering away life in the mindless rat race of the corporate world. Earning huge salaries at the cost of not being able to sit down and think of what they would really want to be doing and doing it instead of kidding themselves that they'll do their thing once they have earned enough money, which apparently is never enough!

When I read Richard Bach, I realise the enormity of our existence, the huge potential lying untapped, the discoveries to be made and the limitless possibilities waiting to be uncovered. I suddenly realise how small and irrellevant our goals are in comparison to this realm of self discovery

The Austrian Connection

9/11, the day brings back many vivid memories about America's war against terrorism, but for us, a gaggle of arnd 60 people, it was an exciting day. To make matters clearer, it was 9-11 alright, but in 2006!

55 dealers from all across the country, who had performed well, were to be incentivised for their performance and I was asked to accompany them. it was my first international trip, but somehow, i felt nothing. Almost like I was going on one more sales tour!

Luckily this would change and I would have a rollicking time in Austria!

The international terminal at IGI airport had a less than normal crowd, probably because of the date that was chosen. But it also meant faster checkin and lesser Q time. We boarded our flight with one dealer almost missing it, because of late arrival. it was my first wide body aircraft experience, and I almost felt that I had entered a packed cinema hall!

The flight to munich had a stop over in Doha, the famous duty free and we made a beeline for duty free and I soon saw many of our team chappies, loading up on the goodies. what really surprised me was the neat and ordered layouts and the stark contrastbetween the hapenning airport and the dry prohibiting desert outside. temperatures, easily touching 45 degrees in the sun.

Landed in Munich (Munchen) in the evening at around 5.30 PM, German time and we boarded our coach that would take us to innsbruck. I was floored by the Auto-Bahns that we travelled on. Speeds not less than 110(infact there is a minimum speed that you have to adhere to!), yet absolutely no honking or jams. Perfect lane discipline and fantastic traffic management. I'll never forget the sight of the BMW motorcyclists zipping past traffic at around 180 KmPh, weaving in and out of lanes. Germany is incidentally Europe's auto heart, with the likes of Damlier Chrysler, BMW, etc having their headquarters and plants, it is Europe's technology and industrial hub, attracting people from all across Europe, especially East Europe which is economically weaker than the west.

Reached Insbruck on schedule and rested fior the day. I was shocked to see that the hotel of almost 100 rooms was managed by a workforce of less than 7 peple. Labour I was told was scarce and expensive in Austria. So people multitasked and minimised repetitve work. For example, the restaurant was pure buffet style and the rooms were small, to minimise cleaning time(in fact all hotels in Europe have small rooms(compared to Indian standards)). the shocker came when I was told that the water that came out through the bathroom faucet was fit for drinking! It took me some courage to drink right from the tap!

The day began with a walking tour of the old city and I was simply overwhenlmed with the Gothic architecture, the cobbled streets and the shops lining then, giving a quaint old feel to the entire place.

we visited Mozart's house and I was taken in by the painstaking restoration and maintainence of teh old building dating abck to almost 400 years!

The city was filled with musicians and artists who lined the strets, some painting away, some singing or playing the guitar. It was a lovely sight and I was especially appreciative of a musician who was singing his compositions and also selling his album CDs' next to a church, not with desperation but with considerable pride!

Part 2 tommorow!

I, Me and the Artifical Climbing Wall

Shutdown time at the plant means near to empty roads, silent production lines, a sudden calm and quiet compared to the hubub of activity. It also means a holiday like atmosphere(well for 95% of employees it is indeed hols) and a general tendency to take it easy.

Add to this the sudden splendid weather (30 max 22 min) and you just don't feel like staying in office.
Just then I had this terrific urge to do some climbing. Checked out the net for artificial climbing walls in Delhi and courtesy google, found one in Delhi, at the Indian Mountaineering foundation.

A call and we were ready to go. Me and Bhatia. A special mention about Bhatti, he proved his climbing prowess last year at Potter Hill when he took on a sheer cliff as if he were climbing up an ordinary ladder and I expected that he would cream this as well as he's a mountain goat in human form!

we reached IMF at arnd 5.00 PM. set against the DU south campus, it had a great feel. Two 30 feet Tata-IMF walls with a great pulley and rope mechanism that could be set for an easy as well as a terrific and challenging climb. varying the angle between 0 to a 180 degrees!

But what took the cake was the artificial "bouldering" roof, where you would literally have to do a spiderman. Imagine crawling on the roof of a room with your back to the ground! sounds impossibe?? well believe it! Cause that's what I saw chaps doing. Holding on to the grips on the roof with bare hands and pushing with their toes, I saw them move across the roof. A real tough feat. Just knocks your breath away.

Coming back to the main story, as you would have guessed, by the time I was thru with 2 walls, one with a negative slope(which means you have to traverse a overhang kind of a slope) I was dead, just couldnt lift a matchstick, whereas Bhatti did 4(yes four) sorties, climbing up and down!! Man he's one amazing guy to watch in action.

With sore and almost numb arms we made it back to pavillion and when I got up in the morning just couldn't feel my arms anymore!

Well a great experience, worth every sec. watch out for my next blog. Special feature on my Austria trip!