You are considered an expert in your field and you have recently changed your employer for a good package.

To produce great output in your expertise area, you need to spend only a few hours a day – you don’t need to come at a fixed time and go at a fixed time but your output are just excellent.

The other persons in your organization with similar experience level and position spend the whole day (and sometime nights also) to produce almost the same (may be inferior) results. They come before the office time starts and normally go hours after the office time is over.

Now there are 2 types of organization cultures.

1. Type – A: Organizations who measure your work by results.
2. Type – B: Organizations who measure your work by the time you spend at the office.

Wonderful if your organization culture falls in Type-A, annoying otherwise.

Such annoyance may lead you to do the efforts of changing organization culture – trying to convert it to Type-A.

In your career, it would be a very costly mistake. Organization Cultures are like countries – they seldom change!

Better decision would be to find a culture where you will be valued by the results you produce.

See Also:

1. Open Secret Of The Marriage Between Vision and Action
2. Absolute Productivity Killer – Thousand Strict Regulations And Low Trust
3. Do You Manage Your Offshore Software Solutions Business This Way?

1. Open Secret Of The Marriage Between Vision and Action
2. Absolute Productivity Killer – Thousand Strict Regulations And Low Trust
3. Do You Manage Your Offshore Software Solutions Business This Way?

In my decennium long experience journey, I have seen organizations which have a great vision – a vision to become a world class company which is super-positive. 100% win-win for all the entities involved, performance centric, employee and society friendly, ultimate customer delight centric… the best!

But with very little actions.

Little actions lead to fewer results and thus little experience to count on.  But they have great measurability of the results.

Measurability is the lens of their vision.

The other type of organizations is “Action” centric. They do not have any permanent vision to stick with. For them “crafting vision” is an overhead. They are in fascination of actions.

High actions lead to more results and more experience to count on.  But they lack the essential – measurability.

And, anything which cannot be measured cannot be repeated with 100% surity, no matter if it is success or failure.

Actions are in harmony only when they are measured, chaos otherwise.

See Also:

1. Are You Measured By Results Produced Or The Time Spent In The Office?

1. Are You Measured By Results Produced Or The Time Spent In The Office?

Better if software services organizations have only a few simple and strong regulations for their people.

Regulations are substitutes for faith…faith in your people’s goodwill, faith in their competence and faith in their commitment. The more the organizations doubt their people, the more rules and regulations they impose.

Some organizations treat their software engineers like illiterate laborers of 1970 and impose pointless regulations which greatly influence them to be unproductive. For example:

• The software engineers should sit on their seat for the whole day and do work, work and work – what the heck is ‘thinking’.
• If they go out to for refreshment or a tea break more than once a day, it is not tolerated.
• If they are 30 minutes late from their regular day in-time, their half-day salary would be deducted – it won’t be considered that yesterday night the same engineer had spent 3 additional hours  to support an important client.
• Etc.

Such regulations do nothing better for the organization’s growth but make employees de-motivated and managers annoyed.

Ability to produce great results never comes from imposing a thousand strict regulations on your people. It comes from trimming out the complexities from your systems and replacing it with creative freedom and self-possession.

As an organization, do you have a mission…a long term goal that is based on specific values? Do you believe in your people? Or do you want to hide behind the list of regulations?

See Also:

1. Everyday Status Meeting – An Absolute Project Killer
2. Are You Measured By Results Produced Or The Time Spent In The Office?
3. Eleven Qualities to Hunt for While Interviewing a Potential Manager
4. What Can Be Termed As A “World Class” Organization?
5. Are There Failures Or Just The Growth Opportunities?

1. Everyday Status Meeting – An Absolute Project Killer
2. Are You Measured By Results Produced Or The Time Spent In The Office?
3. Eleven Qualities to Hunt for While Interviewing a Potential Manager
4. What Can Be Termed As A “World Class” Organization?
5. Are There Failures Or Just The Growth Opportunities?

3 Idiots is one of the most enjoyable Indian movies of this decade. The director Rajkumar Hirani has shown us a bollywoodified yet marvelous view of the masterpiece – Five Point Someone from Chetan Bhagat.

Here are nine rock solid thoughts you may love to revisit from the movie’s perspective.

1. Knowledge is just a dead thing without its timely application. (Salt water is good conductor of electricity)
2. Do whatever gives you utmost enjoyment . Do what you can do effortlessly – if you don’t enjoy whatever you are doing right now; it’s the time to revisit your goals. (Farhan with a passion for photography drops engineering and opts in for assisting a world renowned wild life photographer)
3. You need to know what you are doing. Doing without knowing leads to disasters.(Chatur’s Chamatkar speech)
4. Common sense is so uncommon.  (Definition of ‘machine’ and ‘book’ in the classroom)
5. Thinking outside the box is not common but if applied properly it can lead to new innovations. (Baby’s delivery using vaccum cleaner)
6. Don’t run after success; chase the excellence in whatever you are doing… and success will follow.(Phunsuk Wangadu!)
7. Even if you win the rat race, you end up being a rat. (Virus’ encounter with Rancho)
8. Degrees earned just by rote memorization are not valuable in real life but actual learning is.(400 patents by Phunsuk Wangadu compared to Chatur’s position)
9. Keep your heart as your foolest friend. Tell him that ‘All izz well’ and things would start becoming well…in your perceived world at least!  (many instances throughout the movie)

The best thing about 3 Idiot is, it feels like a real team effort than just to be an Aamir Khan centric movie. If you take out any character (even the character of millimeter!) and the effect would be dimmed. Watching 3 Idiots (again and again) is a rattling experience to learn how to live life powerfully and add some “meaning” to it.

See Also:

1. Informal Learning At Workplace 7
2. Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal

1. Informal Learning At Workplace 7
2. Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal

1. Domineering leadership: Leadership does not accept disagreements out of anxiety or haughtiness. “Yes mans” are climbing the wall of quick success here. High employee turnover ratio in senior management.
2. Poor evaluation systems: Inefficient feedback and evaluation systems incapable of providing correct leadership and management performance evaluation data to the top management.
3. Hidden agendas: Existence of invisible profit centres by cutting employee benefits. Hiring and promotions are based on political agendas. Hiring from personal references or relatives to pocket personal loyalty at the cost of other really qualified employees and/or organization needs.
4. Biased rewards: Promotions, salaries, perks and bonuses are unfairly linked with performance.
5. Wasteful use of resources: Resources are allocated based on favouritism and on personal agendas rather than real business needs.
6. Departments are like internal kingdoms: Department heads believe that more people they manage and employ department specific processes, they will become more powerful. This results in intense influence battles around operations and strategies.
7. Asymmetrical work distribution: One department is over-utilized while other are weighed down. Managers twist work distribution activities to satisfy their personal egos and play the push and pull game to their benefit.
8. Over management: Deep hierarchies and many management layers are in the organization which encumbers communication and results in slower execution and wide-ranging red tapes.
9. Disjointed organization efforts: Operating in own silos and turf wars between rival managers are normal which decreases transparency. Such silos almost always result in fragmented projects and budgets.
10. More talk and less work: Talks regarding ‘What Should Be Done’ and ‘What Could Have Been Done’ are in the air. Individual Image building and management is more important than work.
11. Uncontrolled and inefficient meetings: Heated cross-departments meetings with debates and focusing on scoring points rather than sharing responsibility and collaborating to solve the problems which generally end without conclusions or clear action items.
12. Controversies in unity and unity in controversy: Every person thinks of the self. Low sense of unity and teamwork.  The chief decision making criteria is “What is in there for me to take benefit?”
13. Consistent chaos: Management allows continuous chaos in place. They spend most of the time in building strategies to keep consistent pressure on execution teams and blame them for not completing the tasks.
14. Moral decline: Muted level of pledge and enthusiasm by the teams. Little or zero celebration due to internal negative competition.
15. Bad-mouthing: Bad-mouthing among the executives and managers becomes common and sometimes even public.
16. Extremely stressful workplace: Unclarity of work. Extended work hours. High rate of absenteeism and high employee turnover.

See Also:

1. Disaster-Prone Business Organizations 30
2. What Can Be Termed As A “World Class” Organization?
3. Five Random Thoughts On Organizational Leadership
4. Workplace I Love As A Power-Performer (and you would too!)
5. 15 Things That Employees Want In Order To Feel Motivated

1. Disaster-Prone Business Organizations 30
2. What Can Be Termed As A “World Class” Organization?
3. Five Random Thoughts On Organizational Leadership
4. Workplace I Love As A Power-Performer (and you would too!)
5. 15 Things That Employees Want In Order To Feel Motivated

1. Winners are smart workers: They know when to push and when to pull.  When to be at the right place at the right time. They believe in smart work rather than in hard work. They just outperform.
2. The road to the winning is usually rocky: Winners are those who have fallen many times. They have simply refused to lose. Overnight wins are generally enjoyed by those who have many years of experience in failing.
3. Winners are not born encouraged: To ignite the fire within takes everyday-commitment. Winners are those who are awake when the world is sleeping… to deliver their best when the right time calls. It is said that encouragement doesn’t last. Well, neither does your shaving! You need to get a doze of encouragement every day.
4. Three excellence of winning: A winning consists of a smart blend of the following three excellence’s. Excellent people, Excellent processes and Excellent technology.
5. Laser focus: Winners are those who have the ability to keep sharp laser focus on select areas. Excellence marries to whom who focus on only a few select goals.

See Also:

1. Excellence 21
2. Winners V/s Losers

1. Excellence 21
2. Winners V/s Losers

1. Habitually express that they are important to you, to the project and to the organization.
2. Laugh together on small accomplishments…and failures too to learn something from them and move on.
3. Compliment them in public for the special qualities they have. Be as specific as you can.
4. Give them necessary comfort when they really need it.
5. Speak respectfully, don’t put them down or hurt their feelings.
6. Give them some space to do whatever they like to – within the allowable boundaries of-course.
7. Be enthusiastic over things that they’re excited about and share their excitement.
8. Do something you think they want done before they ask.
9. Discuss changes with them first before you apply them.
10. Show interest in the things they love.
11. Learn something from them without being defensive.
12. Let go of the small stuff.
13. Be a good listener and value what they say.
14. Associate with them even unofficially. A weekend trip is a great idea.
15. Gift a bottle of the wine of their choice as a surprise.
16. Set specific targets to achieve together.
17. Let them feel that they are an integral part of the team. Great if it resembles a real-life family.
18. Don’t take them for granted, always be polite.
19. Don’t feel shy while admitting your mistakes, and ask for forgiveness.
20. Defend them to others, especially to other cross functional teams.
21. Don’t diminish their acumen.
22. Be especially helpful when they are not feeling well.
23. Share small details of your routines with them and ask them to do so – this establishes and maintains trust
24. Don’t embarrass them in front of others.
25. Make eye contact when you are talking.
26. Give them your full attention whenever possible.
27. Do not forget to wish important dates of their lives. At least birthdays and anniversaries.
28. Let them know when you know you are going to be late in the meetings.
29. Give them your undivided attention when they’re talking.
30. Never compare them unfavourably with others.
31. Take care of yourself, It shows you care!
32. Be supportive. Help them to achieve her goals.
33. Run errands without complaining.
34. Explicitly mention their names when you make plans.
35. Do things that make them feel cherished.
36. Build trust into your relationship.
37. Be kinder to them than you are to strangers.
38. Make sure they feel valued above everyone else.
39. Show affection for them in front of other colleagues.
40. Mentally support them when they are discouraged or hurt.
41. Surprise them with an unexpected gift.
42. Honour them and support their dignity.
43. Arrange surprise dinner for them sometimes.
44. Be sympathetic when they are feeling down.
45. Don’t ignore the small things that bother them.
46. Tell them and show them that you value them every day.
47. When you’re away keep in touch via call or email often.
48. Don’t promise something you cannot keep later.
49. Ask them what you can do to have better communication in place. And work upon their answer.
50. Accept them the way they are and the way they are not… and do something about it.
51. Don’t just do the above things just for the sake of doing it. Mean it.

Technorati Tags: team management

See Also:

1. How To Inaugurate Effectiveness In Your Project Team
2. Zen of Team Handling for Software Projects
3. Twenty Two Traits Of Procrastinating Software Developers (Who Should Not Be In Your Team)
4. Tips To Empower Your People 20
5. How Do You Know Your Team Is Motivated 30

1. How To Inaugurate Effectiveness In Your Project Team
2. Zen of Team Handling for Software Projects
3. Twenty Two Traits Of Procrastinating Software Developers (Who Should Not Be In Your Team)
4. Tips To Empower Your People 20
5. How Do You Know Your Team Is Motivated 30

It’s not so hard to beat your execution team for the failures they have caused.  So many organizations live in the past rather than getting the best from the present and building a luminous future. Some organizations stuck for years over something they did or a failure they’ve experienced.  Gloomy.  A business is a terrible thing to waste on such things.

Here’s the critical question:  “Is there really such thing as a failure?”

Does anybody try to fail or muddle things up? Especially when you’ve hired them after competitive interview rounds and trained them to perform at their best?

Every so called “failure” is essentially a affluent source of learning… an opportunity to put together more responsiveness and understanding… converting the causes of failure into something which the organization can benefit from at its next encounter…an experience that will help the organization do, feel and be even better.

So aren’t such failures just the growth lessons and the organization that experiences the most stay successful in the long run?

Technorati Tags: Project Failures, winning

See Also:

1. Open Secret Of The Marriage Between Vision and Action
2. Informal Learning At Workplace 7
3. Five Steps To Turn An Organization Into A Learning Machine
4. Pacesetters 10
5. A Formula for Success by Prof. M.S. Pillai

1. Open Secret Of The Marriage Between Vision and Action
2. Informal Learning At Workplace 7
3. Five Steps To Turn An Organization Into A Learning Machine
4. Pacesetters 10
5. A Formula for Success by Prof. M.S. Pillai

1. PMBOK is US standard and is accepted worldwide while PRINCE2 is UK standard.
2. PMBOK is all-embracing while PRINCE2 focuses on key risk areas only and does not claim to be absolute.
3. PMBOK is largely descriptive and not very dictatorial while PRINCE2 is highly regulatory, especially on Process Structure, but adaptable to any size project.
4. PMBOK offers core and facilitating processes; need to be scaled to the project needs while in PRINCE2 all the processes needs to be considered which can also be scaled.
5. PMBOK is driven by customer requests while chief drivers of PRINCE2 are Business cases.
6. PMBOK: Sponsors, Stakeholders, Scope, Time and Cost. PRINCE2: Clear Project Ownership, Direction by Senior Management, Plans, Business Case.
7. PMBOK offers Procurement which is not covered in PRINCE2.
8. Processes:
   1. PMBOK: Initiating PRINCE2: Starting up, Directing (Project Level) and  Managing Stage Boundaries, Directing (Stage Level)
   2. PMBOK: Planning PRINCE2: Initiating, Planning (Project Level) and  Managing Stage Boundaries, Planning (Stage Level)
   3. PMBOK: Executing/Controlling PRINCE2: Controlling a Stage; Managing Product Delivery; Directing (Stage Level)
   4. PMBOK: Closing PRINCE2: Closing a Project (Project Level) and Managing Stage Boundaries (Stage Level)

Technorati Tags: PRINCE2

See Also:

1. Basics of Projects In Controlled Environments Using PRINCE2
2. Thinking Patterns of Project Teams
3. Six Sigma Project Management Using DMAIC
4. Project Management Is 7
5. Distinction Between Issues And Problems And How To Deal With Them

1. Basics of Projects In Controlled Environments Using PRINCE2
2. Thinking Patterns of Project Teams
3. Six Sigma Project Management Using DMAIC
4. Project Management Is 7
5. Distinction Between Issues And Problems And How To Deal With Them

A day ago we were discussing about learning methodologies and what is more important – Formal study or informal learning? In most cases, we cannot deny the importance of formal studies however if we have an eye for learning from anything and everything that happens around us, we are surely a step ahead.

Here is some light about what informal learning is, how we generally get into it, its advantages and the disadvantages:

Informal Learning:

1. …is learning through experience. Yours as well as others.
2. …can take place entirely in the workplace while doing your regular day job.
3. …directly depends on your observation power and your ability to understand and apply it in the correct context – Observe what your experienced colleagues are doing and map their actions with the results that they are getting. Positive and Negative– both counts.
4. …is considered to be more effective in building proficiency than formal learning methods – that’s the reason while hiring a candidate, experience counts more than mere degrees in the practical world.
5. Its major advantage is that it is mostly relevant and it is done in small steps in which the learner is a kind of entity in the overall happening so the learner can experience and then understand it thoroughly.
6. Its major disadvantage is that it depends on learner’s abilities. Not all the learners may be benefited with this method. It does not happen in the planned manner and thus for average learner it would be difficult in the initial stages.
7. Nonetheless, apart from all the formal learning we get, if we keep our eyes and ears open to any kind of knowledge that can be applied practically – we are on the right way to climb the cliff.

See Also:

1. Five Steps To Turn An Organization Into A Learning Machine

1. Five Steps To Turn An Organization Into A Learning Machine