Thursday 31 December 2015

You can do Anything, but not Everything !

In my corporate work journey, I have met many people. Some good , some not so good.  Some were exemplary and some taught me what not to emulate . 

The learning curve of a child is the steepest from age 0 to 5. In the same way,  when you start your career, that is the time when you rub your corners and shine like a diamond and soak up experiences and learn. 

I had been lucky to work with a person when I started the career and over the years I have realized how much I have learned from him.  For the sake of anonymity, let me call him Big B.   

For some, delegating comes easily, maybe too easy. For others who are perfectionists, letting go of even the most trivial task is almost impossible. If you are in this second category, you probably don’t like the references behind your back that you are a “control freak” or a “micro-manager.”

For Big B , delegation came instinctively.  He had a clear idea about what he would delegate, to whom he will delegate. He gave crystal clear instructions on the assignments. The deadlines, the priorities were crisply communicated.  And he had his own excellent methods of tracking and following ups. 

But one thing which was really admirable about Big B's  delegation was the trust he placed on people and giving credit at the right time and place.

Big B came to office exactly at 9 am and left at 5 pm. Without fail.  I remember one day,  I panted to his office at 5 pm.   He was ready to leave.

"Sir ... please, I need your signature on these " ... I blurted out. 

He looked at me . 

"Is the office on fire ? " He asked . 

"No Sir ... "

"Has anyone died ? "

"Err... No ... ! " I blabbered. 

"Then my signature can wait till tomorrow morning"

"But Sir .... we might lose out on the new contract... "

"Well ... Why couldn't you come a few minutes before ? " Big B asked again

By that time, I was completely flabbergasted.  I could not answer his question.

He picked up his bag and started leaving.  

Big B looked at me and said  "If someone is not efficient, why should I have to pay for it ? " 

This was a lesson learnt which I have not forgotten till date. 

Three Cheers for Big B !   I am sure this post will make him smile.  

I salute you sir !   




Monday 14 December 2015

Get up ! Stand Up !

We, the females in India  have a long way to go ......
A strange event happened in an organization a few days back , which made me wonder even more ....
 But first read the following excerpt from an interview with Warren Buffet where he has talked about Women then and now  :
"I was born in 1930, I had an older sister Doris, a few years older; a younger sister Bertie, a few years younger. Absolutely as smart as I am—probably a little smarter—and much more personable. They got along better in the world and all of that. 
My parents—our parents—loved us all equally, they never told my sisters “you can’t do this” or “you can’t do that”—verbally—but every message they got from society, from their teachers in every way was that their job was to marry well and that if they insisted on working that they could be a secretary, or a nurse or a teacher.
And essentially they were telling me, again silently in many ways, that the sky was the limit. So we would go to school, we would get similar grades, they had everything going for them—except that they were women.
Society just said if you want to be a teacher, fine. If you want to be a nurse, fine. If you want to be a secretary, fine. But forget everything else. So, I have seen that change in my lifetime, although change was slow…It has changed a lot for the better. There’s still important ways to go."
I have been working in Multinational organizations for the last two decades and sometimes I felt proud that yes, there is a difference now . I felt that females have become more professional,  more and more girls are working and are becoming financially independent . Specially in the Software , Banking and hospitality sector, female workforce has increased. I thought that this has made us more confident and secure . 
But my belief was shaken .  Let me recount . 
A lady - in her early twenties worked in the organization. She was an efficient worker, pleasant and hardworking. She commuted for 3 hours daily.  She was reliable and dependable and gelled well in the organization. 
About four months back , she informed everybody that she was getting married . Her fiance was an advocate and she would now be staying a stone's throw away from office. She beamed.  She was happy . So were her colleagues and others in the organization. 
But thereafter , the problems started. She was down with typhoid and had to take unexpected leave for about 3.5 weeks .  Her engagement ceremony happened. And after that she became irregular and unpredictable.  She said that she had to visit her in-laws for preparation of her dresses. She had already consumed all her leaves.  But her supervisor did all the necessary work and took pains to grant her some advance leave. 
When she came with her wedding card to the Global Head , she was asked  whether she would continue work or not. "Definitely ... I have worked so hard and now that I am nearer to the work place , there is no question of my not continuing to work ... " She had smiled demurely. 

She got married. 

She joined office 1 week after her planned leaves had expired.  She attended office for a couple of days and then she again became very irregular. The work suffered.  Her manager was displeased . The deadlines could not be met because of her unavailability. 

She called up her manager after a few days and said that she was staying with her in laws since they wanted her to "integrate" with the family and that she would join back in a few days. 

"A few days " became 2 weeks and then one day she called up her manager saying that she was not well and would like to discontinue working. She would come on the last day of the month to collect her dues and her release letter. 

As per the company policy, she was liable to serve 1 month notice period.  The organizational dynamics was such that this would set a very bad precedent. So, it was conveyed to her that she would not be given her release letter if she did not serve the ice period. 

The next day, she sent an email to the HR manager and  her manager. The email's language was not ordinary.  It was totally like a legal notice. 

It had been written by her lawyer husband. 

I will not go into details of what happened after that. 

It was again evident that the husband did not care about her reputation in the organization, neither did he care about what she wished to do. Neither could she stand up for herself .  

After marriage , the woman's wants , needs, ambition , everything becomes the property of her husband and in-laws.  In this age too, most of  the females are made to "sacrifice" her ambitions, growth etc for the needs of the family.  She is not able to "Lean in " .....



We females should stand up for ourselves. 

We should not be guilty of "being ambitious".  
We should speak our minds.  
We should fight for equality. 
In every step of life. 
Both at home and at work.

We do NOT need validation from anybody !!

It is high time that in the nursery textbooks instead of reading "Father is going to work and mother is cooking",  we should demand that it is replaced with "Mother is in office and father is helping the daughter get ready for school ".

Let us break the stereotypes ! 

Monday 30 November 2015

Recipe for Success

Planning for evening snacks is a Herculean task. 

No. Don't you laugh. 

One who has done it or is doing it will fully empathize with me. 

My daughter has her own demands. My husband has his own tastes and preferences and I have my own set of  likes and dislikes.  

Apart from  dishes of ones own choice, there are a few common factors for the finger food and nibbles. 


One - it should be light so that you do not feel too full during dinner. 

Two - It should be healthy

Three - it should be rustled up in a jiffy 

I have tried using a roster plan where I write down what all I will prepare for the 7 days in a week. But after a while it becomes a tad too boring. Another demerit is that then the joy of cooking is lost and it becomes a very mechanical task. Also, the  innovation aspect takes a back foot.

I find cooking very relaxing. After a stressful work day, when I go into the kitchen and cook something delightful, it soothes my senses.

But, again, as I mentioned, it is a very difficult task. 

Let me give you an example. 

Suppose, I want to prepare sprout salad . So , I sequence my actions . Tiny chopped onions, garlic, a little bit of ginger, fresh coriander leaves and a few chili pieces. I saute these ingredients and put the sprouts in it , sprinkle salt and roasted spices on it.  

A few drops of lemon juice on top and ahh.... heaven ... ! 

Fresh, healthy and easy .... !

Yes, the execution is easy but just a moment ..... 

Had I not planned a day in advance that I have to soak the brown gram and the moong beans (green gram) and had I not strategized that this recipe will fulfill the needs of everybody in the family, I would not have been successful. 

In the same way, at work, planning and strategy are two most important  things that we have to do for being successful at any task.  

If we have to create a software application, we have to ask :

What is the purpose of the application ?
What do the users want
What are the common factors which is important to all the stakeholders?
What are the critical success factors ?

The answers to the above questions will help us create the strategy

Then we have to plan. 

What should be the milestones ?
What will be the sequence of the tasks ?
Who will do it ?
How will it be done ? What will be the design ?
Who and how will it be tested to check if all the requirements are met ?

And so on ....

Once these are done, then coding is the easiest part And we enjoy the work since everything works as per the plan ! 

Easy and fun ...just like rustling up the the sprout salad !

In my long years of experience, I find the organizations teams lacking in planning and strategizing. And even if they do, they do not spend the requisite amount of time and effort on these. 

We quickly want to start the implementation . 

The result ?

Delay in delivery, expectation mismatch of the stakeholders and lots of time , effort and money spent on rework. 

Just like serving poor quality evening snacks !

Cheers !

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Tips for creating outstanding Meeting Notes


I  must confess that in certain matters I am very conventional. 

I still prefer my good old notebook over a laptop for writing meeting notes.  

Nowadays the trend is to carry laptops or tablets and sometimes even a recorder (if permitted) for meetings.  


A few days back, I read a very interesting article on what you miss when you take notes on your laptop

The article was mainly for classroom lectures where one  group of students were asked to take notes on their laptop and another group in their notebooks.  Afterwards , there was a test on the lecture where the questions were a mix of  factual-recall based as well as conceptual-application questions.  

The test marks varied widely for the two groups. 

It was found out that the group which took long hand notes scored significantly better in the conceptual questions as well as factual ones.  

The group which took notes using laptops had long transcription like notes which was almost "verbatim" of whatever the lecturer spoke.  They failed to get the essence of the lecture. The electronic note takers had the tendency to write more and mindlessly transcribing the content. This led to "impaired learning". 


This made me thinking. 

Does this apply to taking meeting notes as well ? 

Hmm... not exactly but maybe partly. Let me explain. 

In one of my previous organization, just like instant coffee, we produced "Instant MOM (Minutes of the Meeting)" !  That was really a productivity enhancer, since the MOM was mailed to all the participants as well as other intended people.  If it was a customer meeting,  we gave them hard copies of the MOM as well. And boy ! They were impressed ! 

For this , we had a scribe who apart from being knowledgeable about the meeting agenda , had good typing speed as well. Mostly the scribe wrote verbatim and within a few minutes of the meeting conclusion, it was reviewed by another participant who checked mainly on the essence and the concepts , if missed out by the scribe . 

Well, this works well if the scribe is very well trained and experienced .  

If not, then it is best to carry on with traditional notebook , because apart from the spoken words, what is more important, specially for crucial client meetings - where negotiation or business deals are decided, are the body language, the pitch and tone of the voice,  the questions being asked and to whom it is directed to and all such non verbal and implicit things which should be observed during the meeting. 

A few other tips : 

  • Record your meeting summaries in a different color or draw a box around them so that you can easily find them months later.
  • Finish your notes by summarizing anything important that happened and put this summary at the end of your notes. For some meetings, the summary will be  very short.
  •  Engage your eyes and ears, and jot down the to-dos, decisions, and information that needs to be captured. When you type in your notes later, that’s when you organize. 
  • Group action items together, decisions together, and reference information together. Now you can easily refer to the meeting’s key outcomes.
  • You can buy special pens and paper that record your notes as an image, import them into your computer, and recognize your handwriting so you can search your notes.
Cheers !