Donate (Blood) - While you can!

August 31st 2014 


The whole of last week was a fantastic one for me!

It started with a talk in a local IEEE function on Sunday - Where I spoke about "Adapting to a changing world!"

Then I paid obsequies to my father on Monday. It was his 25th anniversary. 

Tuesday I was in Delhi doing what I love the most! - Conduct an Experiential Learning program!

Thursday I was preparing for yet another EL session which required a Banker training.

Was conducting a QUIZ for my Apartment kids on Saturday. This was as part of the Ganesh Chaturti festivities within our complex.

Finally, this morning I got to know that one of the kids in my apartment block needed Blood. I saw it as a nice opportunity to help someone and thereby end the week with a feeling of gratitude!

I know that there are strict norms against donating blood. But was confident that I would not be rejected for any of the reasons!
Infact I ensured that I check the qualification for blood donation. I was asked
- Are you more than 60kgs in weight?
- How old are you?
- Are you male? (They wanted platelets & I believe they do not have women donate for this cause)

My response was affirmative for all the 3 questions.
However, I was stunned to be rejected because - I believe there is one more question that needs to be asked:
- Are you on any medication?

I had to reveal that - I am on Thyroid medication. At which point I was politely told that they cannot accept mine!


This struck me very hard!
It is not so much to the fact i could not help this particular person. It is the revelation that I CANNOT HELP ANYONE WITH MY BLOOD in the FUTURE as well!


If you look at it philosophically - I did not donate while I could - during my early days! (This was my 2nd attempt to donate blood) - and now it is too late!

I can only receive & not give! - What a life :-(

Reflective Question - Does this correlate with Money or other things as well? 


ENJOY THE FRUIT OF GIVING WHILE YOU CAN!

Progression / Promotion - is it a one way street?

Progression / Promotion - is it a one way street?

We always seem to think in linear terms - 
- Pay must always increase
- I should be leading more people
- I should be working for larger organization
- and, to an extent 'prices' always seem to go up :-)

This also seem to be the case with 'Promotion', isn't it?

One needs to be promoted from Team member > team lead > proj manager > delivery manager > General manager etc. etc.
In most of these cases both the organization and employee seem to be thinking in similar terms!


Why is it so?
Is Progress a forward moving line? if so for whom?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Being the Iron man of the house! (Work-Life Balance)

Being the Iron man of the house! (Work-Life Balance)

We are all looking for work life balance, aren't we?

Well, that's what i thought I when took a sabbatical of sorts to explore new entrepreneurial opportunities outside of a regular job.

To be candid with everyone, this topic still eludes me!

Surprised!?

Well, the reality is no matter how much time you have got, if your intent / purpose is not clear, you *will* not take the time out to enjoy the small pleasures of life!

When I left my earlier organization, many of my peers wondered if they would ever be able to make such a 'drastic' call.

So here is the good news.

There is nothing like perfect work life balance!

The entire essence lies in the intent to spend those crucial moments when your family needs you!

For example, I am called the 'Iron Man' in the house!

No, not that kind that you think of (being tough etc.).

I happen to iron my kids clothes in the morning as they are 'Perennially' late to catch the bus!

Now, this might be a small act, but your presence (i am sure) makes a lot of difference to them.

I know many of you might doing different things, like
- Dropping the kids till the school or the school bus
- Taking them to any extra curricular activity
- Cooking a dish that the kids love to have
- helping your spouse with any small chore
- spending dinner time with each other at any cost (no calls, no tv etc.)

etc.

So, set a regime (one that you can sign off with your spouse!) & stick to it!
Don't wait for PERFECTION!

PS: Do share your 'simple' ideas that have helped you, so that others can learn from them!

Training - The Pause button in your work life!

Training - The Pause button in your work life!

Many a times we are told by our participants - This will not work in our workplace!
or asked mockingly "Do you think these tips will help?"

Having been in the Business we all know the pressures that teams work under.

I was recently working on training topic "Annual Performance reviews."

The steps laid out for "Planning" for the Appraisal Discussion were mentioned as follow:
Stage1: Prepare the appraisee for the discussion (10 questions under this)
Stage2: Prepare yourself for the discussion (some more)
Stage3: Ensure both of you have all the information you need (3 more checklist)

Typically a manager (in the IT context) boasts of many reportees and imagine if s/he has to do the above for each of the members! 

One might rightly complain - What a waste of time? Or "I don't have time" to be more modest !

Which is true.

So the question is "How do we encourage employees to invest in training?"

One of the response that I was thinking of was as follows.
Training is a 'sandbox' where you experiment with processes, tools, techniques etc 
This happens in 'Slow motion'.
Time is not a factor.

However, in real life these tips, techniques needs to become their second nature!
So you will have to hit the 'PLAY' button (or Fast Forward!)

Any other thoughts?

Raju

Root vs Derivative - Knowledge

Root vs Derivative:

One of the areas which I have taken up for sustenance is content curation.

As many of my friends in the L&D space know, content is no longer king (!?).
With the advent of internet information is available freely - just just have to look at the right place!

While I was doing this, a thought struck me. 

Am I looking at the Root knowledge or the Derivative knowledge!?

Let me explain it with an example:
Say, I was looking for a content on empowerment. When I Google this term, (apart from the fact that it throws up 14 million odd hits!) there are many articles, presentations, etc. which people have themselves curated over a period of time.
I find it attractive to pick something like "Top 10 reasons why employees don't feel empowered" or "7 steps to empowerment"

However, when I saw the content, many of them were referring to some other source of information, and that source may be referring to another.

If a speaker quotes from a Newspaper, which in turn has quoted from say a Gartner report, which in turn might have referred to a Government paper that was published...it might go on & on! 

So here was my dilemma...from 2 perspectives - As a trainer and As a reader (person consuming knowledge).

As a trainer, which information is Authentic ? - Am i dwelling at the superficial level or want to go in-depth to understand the actual source.
Also will i be able to support the claim that is being made with my audience.

As a reader, Am I reading a hearsay account (& I may be okay with it) or should I explore more to get to the source!

This dilemma keeps me on my toes on both counts!

Of course there are tips & trick when curating - for example:
A) Audience have deference to expert talk. If Bill Gates / Premji / Steve jobs / Gartner - says it - then it must be true!

B) People like simplicity - if there are 7 steps to do something - they find it easier to implement

C) Appeal to all senses - With NexGen employees you can make it interesting by converting it to include VAK (Visual, Auditory & Kinesthetic)


Congratulations! You have added to another 'Derivative' to the chain :-)

[Note: We can extrapolate this concept to Food as well. With levels of processing adding to the derivatives]

Escape Velocity - The New Orbit!

My experience for the past 366 days in the New orbit! (Entrepreneurial life!)

"Escape Velocity" - that's what I had christened my plan. To pull me away from 18 years of bondage/association with an organization and its ethos, pathos and logos!

Like many of my friends in Wipro who feel 'stuck' in their positions, i too had the pangs of not being able to let go of a comfortable life, cash flow including (!), and plunge into an unknown life.

Here are few of the things which helped me in 'escaping' and a few lessons which I had learnt along the way after coming out.

Being in the learning domain helps sometimes in applying those learnings on yourself!
All those talk on being positive, proactive, looking at the needs than the wants, and ultimately 'What is the legacy one wants to leave in the world!' - helped in 'Staying hungry'.

As I learnt from my senior colleague & guru - Brij Sethi - The psychological contract with the organization is usually broken much before the physical contract with the organization. When I look back this was true, my psychological contract was broken atleast 1 year prior.

Reflecting back to the conversations that I had with my other colleagues, every one of them have a broken psychological contract, however, they did not have any alternative motivation that can pull them away!

So I had to create one which can pull me away - which is why I termed it - Escape Velocity!

This means identifying reasons, skills, strengths, purposes that are BIGGER and more MOTIVATING than the current ones.
I could clearly see that the only current motivator was the Cash Flow!

The obvious first step (being a logical 'C' in the DISC parlance) seems to be creating a SWOT in order to identify where my strengths lie.
Apart from the skills and variety of competence that I had listed, i was fortunate enough to identify "my Age' and the 'cognitive ability' (because of the age) as my strength.

The reason I was able to do this was because of the bucket list that I had created. Items such as 'Learning Sanskrit', Learning Tabla, etc needed the ability to learn, which (in my opinion) i may not be able to do in my 60th year.

I say 'May not' because, In my life I have seen many seniors who 'retire' and do not have any extra curricular skills and struggle to find a purpose.

Apart from this the list contains - Spend time with the children (when they still around you!) ; Grooming Youngsters; Volunteering (Service, Acupressure etc.); Gaining the foundation knowledge on spirituality; Building an old age home for close family members in a farm land;

The next step was 'Direction'
I strongly began to believe in Stephen Covey's quote
"You climb the ladder of success, only to realize - after reaching the top, that the ladder is leaning on the wrong wall!"

This quote gave me the impetus to explore my purpose in life and the direction in which I am heading.
Having certified and taught this course for many years, i had the required tools at my disposal to create a Vision (Begin with the end in mind) for myself.

I am fortunate that I had the right breaks within Wipro to play a wide variety of roles. I was a Project Manager, onsite Account manager, Pre-sales, Part of the core team that began the Clinical Process Outsourcing business, and lastly the Learning & Development.

In order for the vision to be realized, it was key to let go of the all the past 'successes' & try and rediscover. 
Fortunately (again!) I had the full support of my wife & family in deciding to let go of a comfortable life & redefine a new way!

My vision was to - 
Establish myself as a freelancer by creating the right tie-ups (so that I don't have to worry about where my next assignment is coming from) & create a discipline to focus on the big rocks!

My professional objective for the initial years was
- Get atleast half of what I used to get in the corporate ( so that the 'Bread' part of it is taken care, 'Butter & Jam' had to wait!)
- Establish a new Network that is valuable
- Have a set of repeat Customers & reliable Knowledge partners
- Spend time helping out at home (psychological / career space for spouse)

So the journey began on Jan 31st 2013!

It has been a mixed bag of success. I am close to the financial target, however many of the personal agendas are still pending :-(

Here are my learnings for the past year:
- Discipline:  Working form home has its own advantages and disadvantages. You need to discipline yourself to focus on the work at hand and not get carried away with regular home chores.

- Positive energy: You have to ensure that you motivate yourself. Think of 'Why' you have taken this step. Think of the timeline that you have given yourself to be financially independent. Thinking of the Need & not your want. 
DO NOT PANIC.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH people who encourage you.

- Networking: This has been a BIG learning. My earlier network was mostly in the IT world and that too within Wipro!
You do not benefit greatly from it. Though I must mention that I did get business from some of the ex-Wipro folks who moved out and are in responsible positions outside!

- Asking for help - unabashedly!
This is still an area which is 'unnatural' to me! However, without 'asking' you will know the 'opportunity' or the 'money'! I am getting at it :-)

- Conserving cash
My corporate friends should be very happy that they get a pay check at the end of the month!
The payment terms is a reality and you cannot depend on spending based on the programs that you have done! and hence it becomes very important to regulate where you spend the money.
There is a very strong pressure to dip into your 'Savings'.

- Synergizing on skillset with other facilitators
Being a freelance, there is a tendency to do all the things yourself! The thought that "I brought in the business, why should i give it away?" keeps crossing you. However, when you look from the client's point of view, they would want the best and you can help in bringing in the right skills (at right cost!)
I am fortunate to have the support on multiple quarters.
Just to mention a few names - Shantanu Chakravorthy / Sudip Majumder/ Gurudutt Rao / Dr Rajendra Joshi / BKM / etc. acting as coach/guide; and Selvan Dorairaj / Shagufta Inamdar / Col. Vijay / Amit Badkas / Satyan / Kalluri Sankar helping out in getting me some business.

- Specializing in a particular area
Extension of the earlier point, there is always a dilemma on where you need to be seen as a specialist or 'know all'.
This can be very distracting to business. This i think is the offshoot of our need to be seen by the client as the one stop solution. I am still working on this (should I be called as an Experiential Learning specialist or a Leadership trainer)


- Be all end all!
This is a real bummer! Being the single person who is the organization, you are the Marketing - Sales - Content Design - Creation - Delivery - Feedback - Invoicing - Collection agent!
This can really suck out the time from your core area.
Again the dilemma whether to create a team or sign up with a team or go at it alone!
Still confused, I would say!! (trying out everything!)

- Finance - Service Tax, Income taxation, tracking expenses (filling the bills)
Knowing the regulations, Understanding how business is run, how you need to track the expenses, how/when to raise invoice, etc have all been an eye opener.

At the end of it all - It has been fun to
- take charge of what you want to do and when
- go through this whole experience of business process
- be around when you family needs the most
- take time out to smell the flowers

and as we say in our EL programs
"...and the journey begins"

PS: In case any of you want help in building you 'Escape Velocity' you are most welcome to talk to me!