Our Strength is not for Hurting

 

Though the year 2o12 had a lot to offer me personally, I can’t help but not go back to some not so happy personal incident(s); plus of course the plight of the 23 year old woman who was subjected to gangrape and subsequent inhuman torture at the hands of 6 individuals recently in the Capital. What happened afterwards in terms of protests, and the way the protest were handled by the government also threw up some unpleasant questions which needed answers, and which needed them fast.

Be you a student, entrepreneur, activist or leader (corporate/ government) who might happen to read this post;  I sincerely believe that we all as individuals, and a country, are capable of achieving much greater things. As we all condemn the act, and seek justice and fairness for such untoward incidents, let us also take a look inside and try to understand what makes individuals, who are not so much different from us in flesh and bone, commit such acts – and therein try to nip the issue at the bud.

A solution that might work in the long run (not saying it’s the fastest way to bring about change) is to create the right environment at the family level wherein we consciously seed out patriarchal/ matriarchal traits which differentiate between a boy and a girl  (one which gives privileges to one child more than the other, at different levels/ instances/ ages etc); treating the children equally in terms of love and care, and enabling both to find and pursue their greatness in thoughts, words and deeds – By doing this, we might, perhaps, be able to achieve an environment wherein more men respect women and look at them as fabulous individuals, just like themselves. In such an environment, more men should, and will, understand that when it comes from a woman – a ‘no’ means ‘NO’. (Below is a campaign which I had come across sometime back, and which shows how powerful the idea is in such an environment).

 

Picture credit: My Strength Campaign (http://www.mystrength.org/)

Broken Windows Theory – Taking a drive through Delhi, night 2 AM…

 

If you happen to be one of those late night creatures on my FaceBook network who find it hard to sleep before 2/ 3 AM, chances are you would have tripped on the below post from me on 16th November morning 2:36 AM:

 

 

Well, it was a serious incident, but we were able to take care of it as a family. Given how our minds respond in a very limited fashion under such circumstances, all four of us were able to focus on four different activities and managed to arrive at our place unharmed whilst taking care of the needful.

Once home, we informed the district police on ’1oo’ and also corresponded with a couple of officials from the district police station on phone. We also made it a point to reach out to the Police officials at more responsible positions (on mail), to ensure that those guys were caught and so that others would not have go through this kind of ordeal at their hands. Having waited for a few days, finally got the following mail from the Delhi Police Commissioner’s cell today morning:

 

Ever Been In Such A Rush That You Nicked Your Face?

 
So I had the opportunity, again, to meet up with Yinglan Tan, a much valued friend and a fabulous fabulous human being, towards the close of the second day of TiEcon Delhi 2012.

We had the opportunity to discuss a few things, but as I close on my work tonight, I can’t help but go back to the most important chat we had that day:

 

Yinglan : “So tell me Monce, have you ever been in such a rush to reach where you wanted to reach, that you couldn’t wait to finish your shave and nicked your face in the process?”

Me (already lost in thought during the conversation but experiencing one of the best feelings while answering this): “I missed my dinner once… I missed breakfast a few times… * ” (trying to analyze  the strange feeling, and back to being even more lost in thought now…)

 

* And trust me, it was true: It was only during I was already en-route somewhere that I realized I had forgot to have my dinner that particular day!

For those who are trying to find meaning in the above lines, just try to think of the times you were doing something that you really wanted to do (stuff that makes the real ‘you’ come alive), and rest everything (time, place, everything!) fades into the background.

 

Yinglan, it’s always such a pleasure to meet and learn from you, each and every interaction.

Night 2:45 AM and inspired, a good day coming to an end…

 

 

p.s.: That’s me above – on one of the days I really do need a real bad shave.

Got similar experiences to share?  Would love to hear from you in the comments below.

 

 

Cheers, Monce

Neil Armstrong… and the Art of Dreaming B.I.G.

 

Can’t help but imagine what Neil was thinking when he was chosen for the Apollo 11 Space mission, along with Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins… and what must have been going through his mind when he ‘decided’ to go ahead with what he did.

Neil inspired folks to think B.I.G. … that all limitations are, but self-imposed… and that when one outrageously decides to give a shot at being the first man on the moon, rest everything looks ordinary.

Kids will keep learning about you in the years to come Neil; & no one can take away the fact that you were the ‘First Man to Walk the Moon’…

RIP Neil… you live on…

 

 

 

DECIDE… DO…

 

p.s.: I am neither a Science geek, nor a self-proclaimed fan… Just an ordinary guy who feels inspired by Men such as these who dare to walk the Earth, or the Moon for that matter.

p.p.s.:  Those who have the urge to comment on the Moon landing conspiracy, some other day folks!

 

Cheers,  Monce

Jumping off Cliffs and Building your Wings on the Way Down

Today somehow reminds me of my first para-sailing experience at the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Camp at Air Force Station, Tambaram (Tamil Nadu, India).

Back then, I was this 18 year old ‘kid’ who had decided to enroll with the NCC simply because they had told us that, as NCC cadets, we would get to do crazy adventurous stuff like rifle shooting, skeet shooting, parasailing, etc.  - Enough ammunition to get the pulse of any guy racing!

What they did not tell us – We would be put through a gruelling self-discipline learning over the next couple of years which included attending NCC training on weekends and annual camps where we would learn to march (or walk smartly, as they put it), run 7 laps of a ground 3 times the average football ground (at 5 in the morning!), and also do a whole lot of other stuff which would, ahem, build our character.

Why do I speak of this – Because I loved every moment of it! Strangely when I look back, I now realize that we were doing all the not-so-fun-disciplinary-stuff for the major part or almost 80% of our time spent in NCC activities but which made us able and up-to-task to take up the next 20% of mind-blowing experience that the annual camps had to offer us.

I remember, in particular, my first para-sailing experience – Our batch from college had assembled that evening at the grounds for the parasailing drill (the entire drill was to be on ground, and not water), and all of us were asked to strap on the harness one by one… and wait.

For most of us who had no idea how to go about the para-sailing, this meant that we had to keep running behind a jeep which held us by a thick rope, this with a para-sail strapped to our back, lift off to stay in the air for some 3 minutes, and then land on the ground from a height of 25 – 30 feet at the end of it.

Though I was ‘a bit’ enthusiastic about the entire experience, I did feel a bit unnerved at the thought of ‘plummeting to death’ on my way down, and managed to delay the experience by asking others to go ahead all evening – this till I was the only one left for the exercise! Having seen a few guys get bruised from the effort (or lack of it!) of not keeping on running before they were lifted off – in which case one is dragged by the jeep for a few seconds, and suffers bruises and cuts; I just strapped on my frail helmet while being assisted with knee pads (the knee pads hardly looked as if they could support my weight and save my knees should I ever be gloriously dragged on the runway, or on cheese for that matter!) and started to focus on what would help me survive the entire drill.

The instructions were simple:

1. Run with the jeep.
2. Once you are lifted off the ground, focus on keeping up with the peddling action up to a height of 10 feet, so that even if you were to get back on ground because of not strong enough winds, you would be in running motion and will not get dragged around by the jeep (very much a possibility given my generous built!)
3. Once you have crossed 15 – 20 feet and reach a stable height, signal whether you are comfortable: (a) If Comfortable - Release grip from harness and stretch hands wide open once, then get back to hold the harness, (b) If Uncomfortable - Cross and open legs a couple of times.
4. On your way down when being lowered, ensure you bring together your body such that your line of sight is in aligment with your knees and forefoot.
5. Land gently while keeping balance.

SOUNDS EASY, RIGHT!

The curious case of Outliers & the Pursuit of Excellence – II

 

“School ke liye fees thodi lagti hain, uniform lagta hain… uniform… !”

- Aamir Khan, in the movie ’3 Idiots’ (2009)

 
If you happened to be in India in the year 2oo9 and like to watch movies that do not require you to switch your brains off, chances are that you might have watched the movie ’3 Idiots’. One of the best things that I liked about the movie was the idea about how education ought to be – all learning that is in sync with your passion, the rest being details.

As mentioned earlier, when reading a book like Outliers, one starts to wonder whether the same principles that are applicable for individuals to reach Point B from Point A, are also applicable to organizations including businesses, schools and colleges at large.

Just recently, one of my former teachers from school, Ms. Diana Charles (fellow Columbans would fondly remember her as the person who inducted us into the Spelling Bee) shared a link on her FaceBook wall: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success, which speaks about how the Finnish schools are achieving excellence in schools. Though the article focuses on 2-3 few key points, the one idea that really caught my imagination was  the point that the Finnish schools were achieving great results by focusing on ‘equality’ more than excellence.
 

 
It was with a similar idea in mind that I had met up the co-founders of a social organization in early 2010. The team was working on the education of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, and were doing this on the weekends from within St. Columba’s School (SCS), the classrooms being provided for free by the school towards this. The idea discussed was a simple one – to make efficient use of the ‘Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act‘, bearing in mind that just making the ‘right’ compulsory was not going to solve the problems. If you think about it, there is more to making the ‘right’ work than putting a child in a great school and hoping that we have solved the education problem. The usual hindrances being how the transition works out for the kid, and as to how he/ she adjusts to the new setup.
 
Factors that need to be taken into account
 
Factors include – the books, school bag, lunch (‘Stanley ka Dabba’ anyone?) , stationary, and last but not the least – the uniform*. Easier said than done though, because the list adds up to minimum INR 1,000, for a family whose monthly income would be in the range of INR 2200 – 3000 (or less).

* (The uniform, in my opinion, is amongst the greatest levellers out there. It brings everyone under one roof, fosters a sense of brotherhood, takes out most diversity issues and gives all kids a level playing field – for all you know: kids, teachers and even your school canteen guy thin slices students on a daily basis, but most are not aware of it at a conscious level).

Whilst I toyed with a few ideas as to how the school could leverage and lend support to this initiative by spending least money and effort, I also got teaching the kids at the social org on weekends  (standards 2 to 5) during my free time to get an idea about their potential. My observations, in brief, were as follows:

The Curious Case of ‘Outliers’ & the Pursuit of Excellence – I

 
Having your flight delayed by a couple of hours can ‘sometimes’ truly be a blessing in disguise. A couple of weeks ago, on my way back home after vacations and when faced with this predicament, I did what I usually don’t do to counter these kind of situations – buy a book!

Those of you who know me are well aware that I usually do not buy books, for the simple reason that most of the times it’s just skim reading, going through the book (fiction/ non-fiction/ other classifications out there in the universe) and taking away 2-3 key concepts that stay with me. I might return to revisit a few concepts now and then, but am not exactly in love with the idea of ‘rereading’ books.

To cut a long-story short, I managed my way into the inhouse (or is it in-airport?!) bookstore, and the first book that caught my eye also happened to be the one I bought – The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  It had been recommended a few times on some LinkedIn forums and by some of my peers; plus having read Malcolm’s earlier work ‘The Tipping Point’ in 2011, it seemed like a good enough choice.

The brilliant book that Outliers is, when one starts thinking of the theories given therein,  it opens up a world of possibilities in terms of their applications to the real world. Taking forward some of the learning, in this post I intend to share what most people know works beautifully in teams, but never knew why – Having a flat organization structure and the payoffs of being approachable.

The Power Distance Index (PDI)

 
So what would your reaction be if Malcolm Gladwell told you that there was a ‘direct’ correlation between the number of plane crashes and the place from where the pilots belonged. Sounds crazy right? Wrong. Read more on this by clicking here.

A section of Outliers builds on the concept of the ‘Power Distance Index’ (PDI) which is an interesting theory (amongst the 6 Dimensions of national culture) put forth by Geert Hofstede, and which looks at how much a culture values hierarchical relationships and how individuals within that culture interact with authority. The implications of PDI when applied to plane crashes are powerful enough to make you stop reading midway and think as to how this augurs for the different businesses across the globe.

Getting the best from others: Where does one start? – II (The Workforce ‘Three Quadrant Quandary’)

 
Almost a year back I had written a post on “Getting the best from your team: Where does one start? – I” where I had explored a couple of ideas that a startup had applied towards building a great motivated team.

The year 2011 has been a great one in terms of meeting different people and getting to learn a lot via interaction as well as via plain ol’ observation. Just a couple of weeks back, whilst I had the fabulous opportunity to interact with Tan Yinglan, and we all were in Bengaluru along with a colleague’s friends from the city, the banter drifted to the topic of performance appraisals at a well known global IT firm – easier said than done!

During the 5 minutes or so that the group was discussing the general concerns of people & performance in huge organizations, my mind drifted back to something I had learned during the first 6 months of my work life, and which I have now fondly named “The Workforce ‘Three Quadrant Quandary’.”
 

The Workforce ‘Three Quadrant Quandary’

 
This started out as a funny concept which I observed whilst I had just started working right out of college, but one which has started making more and more sense over the years. Whilst it is ‘relatively easier’ to gauge and manage people strengths and weaknesses when working in smaller organizations, it becomes more and more complex as the organization scales up; more so when we start thinking of organizations where we have 500-1000+ employees (we have a good number of firms flaunting these kind of numbers in their workforce).

In an organization, people can generally be classified under the following quadrants:

For ease of understanding, +1 indicates a positive display of the characteristic (Knowhow/ Showhow) whereas 0 denotes a lack of the same.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Quad I: +1 Knowhow, +1 Showhow

These are the visible S.T.A.R.S. in your organization. They know the work, and (a) they are smart enough to let others know about their genuine efforts or (b) they are lucky enough to be recognized for their genuine efforts.

These are the ones who will keep taking your organization to the next level(s) as long as you keep providing them with right opportunities that help them grow, and which gives them a sense of achievement. Work on them, groom them for the next level (as they become intrapreneurs)… and needless to say, please make it a point to make sure you put in your efforts to retain them!