Picking the right battles

There was a certain role I was asked to take up as a matter of fire fighting. It was not a role originally expected out of me, not my strength but at that point of time it was a circumspect decision. I managed to contribute to extinguish the fire and people expected me to continue but I quit. Its true that I quit half disappointed that certain things should be better done and we are doing it wrong. A person told me if it was him he wouldn't have quit but would have fought for the cause till everything was rectified. I just smiled, never answered and let him think that I had chickened out. I let my ego take a back seat.

In another few instances while certain issues were going on I opted to keep quiet. Being a very vocal person and all of a sudden being silent on certain things puzzles the other people. Some understand after ages but the others never understand the reason behind the silence.

This realization is something I got out of reading the art of war. A great general will carefully avoid battles than fighting them all, he would pick the battles which are worth being fought for. Every battle fought depletes the resources. In life too time is limited, they deplete your emmotional stocks, you cannot fight every battle/cause that you come accross, you need to pick them as per priority and be coherent with the lifes objective. Hence its ok to be rated as a "loser" in one persons book while you are fighting the one worth to be fought. In life too it doesn't count how many battles you won but what matters is whether you win the war.

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Urban wild life

I am lucky to live in a place where I can capture these pictures just outside my window.


The reason I remembered the monkeys is because day before yesterday I was reminded an idiom which said, "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys" but then I didn't pay anything and still got real monkeys around here and feels bloody 'lucky' :D

IT organizational lifecycle

It just clicked to me when we are analysing a technological company to formulate a strategy, other than the usual tools, a lifecycle analysis can reveal crucial information which we would have missed when sticking to a usual SWOT or a PESTEL.

I see that there are atleast four lifecycles which should be analysed. The organizations life cycle, the industries lifecycle, the technology lifecycle and product's life cycle. The fourth factor is valid in case of a product oriented company or a company which aspires to be one.

Let's assume there is a fictious company which is 2 year old with 15 employees and is developing symbian and blackberry personal time tracking client applications.

step 1: we need to find out which phase the company is in. Above given seems a small start up in its growth phase. Being small, probably indicates that the organization can be agile and adaptable.

Step 2: lifecycle of the industry. The mobile application developement industry is in its growth phase and with the advent of cheaper smart phones it seems it will grow for the foreseeable future, there doesn't seems to be a clear leader of the pack at the moment and a lot of start ups are rushing into share the spoils. The playing fields are relatively flatter than matured industry.

Step 3: analyse the technology life cycle in the industry and the technologies used by the company. For example, Symbian is a technology for which the sun has set, hence the future looks bleak, where as blackberry still has a market but the dominance is between iphone and android.

Step 4: we need to analyse which phase the product is at. There are two approches that can be taken. One is to find the users of the system and find which segment is using it. Whether if its the innovators using it, or is it the early majority, or are we peaking with the majority or are we at the tail end where we are seeing the lagards embracing it slowly. This is called as the chasm model.

The second model is to map and see whether the product is developing, growing, stable, cash cow or sun setting. For example the symbian version is either a cash cow or a sun setting version.

I guess this kind of analysis gives a holistic perpective to understand the battle lines of the organization.

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Traitor or Patriot ?

He is changing color while dealing a thorny issue, do you call him a traitor or a patriot?

The Nameless film

It was one of those busy days where I had to train people from morning till evening. I was feeling burnt out and the only thing I wanted to do as soon as I retreated to the hotel was to sleep. Since I was alone and no one around to speak with, I switched on the TV and then started to prepare for the next day. Although I sometimes switch on the TV, I am not a fan of TV so I seldom notice whats on it and never bother to switch channels.

Soon after I completed the preparation I fell on the bed with a lot of relief and for some reason on this strange day, the program on TV attracted my attention. First I got attracted to it since I saw a familiar hindi face on an English language film. But my knowledge about Hindi actors and actresses was poor so I didn't know the name of the actress, but I can remember seeing her face in the movie "kadal desam" . I watched for a few mins and for some reason I couldn't switch it off and sleep. It was very different and the developing story line was captivating my mind.

Being a child who have had the identity crisis at a certain point of time in life the main character Gogols struggle was something I could understand. His mothers sentiments were the things I had seen from a lot of elders around me. I could connect each thing that was going on with either my life or of the life of someone whom I know well. It was strange, it gave an eerie feeling, I couldnt stop thinking how did someone capture this delicate issue in such a script, unless the writer had lived through it he or she couldn't have come up with this. As time progressed I was sure that its a master piece, given the context and mind set I was in it was a brilliant movie. But I had an issue and a really big one, I watched a movie, liked it to bits, but i do not know the name of a movie. Believe me its a such a bad feeling.I depended on  Google to find me the name of the nameless film by searching the phrase "Gogol film" to be told that its "The Namesake"! The casting list said the actress whom I had seen before was Tabu. Then after a few month's my friend made a post about the Novel "Namesake" and that was the point at which I got to know that it was a movie adopted from a novel.

Now I go around telling people who are going through or had gone through similar struggles to watch the movie! Seriously its mind blowing and beautiful! Watch the trailer below.

Confused

The whole of today I had been utterly confused, when I was eating my mind was going through the same thought process, when I tried to sit down and write a blog again the same thought was crossing my mind. Its a huge internal battle between the metabolism in the system, its nothing less than a battle between the heart and the mind. Heart pulls in one direction and mind right in the opposite direction. The question is should I or shouldn't I buy a DSLR.

I already have a good point and shoot camera, in the recent times I get these thoughts,  its sharpness is not enough, I want to play a bit more with the RAW images and I had peaked with a point and shoot and its time to try the next level. Not forgetting that what I have is a good camera and I really like the zoom, which I doubt I can ever pay and buy a lens with that capability on DSLR. I was warned by  some pro's when I wanted to buy this point and shoot that I will get this syndrome after some time.

I am still not sure whether I will buy one or not, but the only conclusion that I have arrived at is that "mind is a monkey". Now I want to get this confusion out of my mind so that tomorrow will be a clear day!

Some classic myths at work places

In my wee bit of experience I have had in the co-operate world I had observed certain myths people have, which usually leads to epic failures.

Myth 1: Lets try to sort out the problem among us without letting higher level authorities know about it.
Covering up major things is almost like pasting some antiseptic less plaster on a festering wound. It just covers it up for a day or two to eventually come out as a bigger problem. Within an organization there should not be cover up of issues. If its happening either its an unhealthy organizational culture or the particular individual's approach is wrong. Certain issues that we consider as issues might not be issues at all, so discuss openly and most of the time it can be sorted out by other means

Myth 2: He is my boss, so I take his word on work related instruction.
This is the typical "Yes bass" culture. Get a life, he is human, he can make mistakes and might not have seen the different perspective. If the objective is shared among the team and if everyone is striving for common good its a duty to take it up and rectify it.

Myth 3: I am sure I can always do a better job than my sub ordinates. 
If its real then its a serious cause for concern and it indicates that your recruitment strategy is good for nothing, on the contrary it might be that you are bad at delegation. Think about it, people have different strengths and weaknesses and everyone cannot be good at everything, so identify the strengths and use them. Instead of trying to live as the know it all.

Myth 4: He is inexperienced to do it
More the years better the work output is a big myth.  I think at any job role the steepest learning curve is during the first six to 12 month period. For someone who has at least 6 months experience give them a chance, support and time they would do it, as long as they have the capacity.

Myth 5:  When you recruit, always recruit people who can be kept "under control". 
You would observe that most of the amazingly talented people have alarmingly eccentric characters. They would have a lot of confidence in their abilities, a no nonsense attitude and endless energy. These are the type of people who can transform organizations and take the organizations to a few levels of standard above. But at an interview they wouldn't get a tick if you are looking for a character who could be kept under control. There is a rule which says, whenever you recruit always recruit people who are better than you! It takes a strange level of realization to accept this reality and reap the reward of such recruitment decisions.

Myth 6: I need to be popular 
Job is not a popularity contest, unless you are a politician who has to run for office every 5 years. The success is not measured on how popular you are but on the output you produce. Do the right thing which is coherent with the overall objective of the organization, if the right thing makes you unpopular so may be it for the time being. This applies specially if you are in a management role.