One way Proactiveness does not work

How many times, you have went to a management review or parental advice and received back the advice: "Why don't you be pro-active?" Have been wondering, whether it is a sage advice?

To me, each of us have to be active, proactive and reactive at the same time for energy, enthusiasm, positive vibration and co-exist in a healthy social set up. The social setups, can be friends, college, schools, organizations, housing societies, religious orders, parties and similar ones.

Being active, is a state of self readiness, while pro-active and reactive are a perception of the community about your activity level.

It is important calibration that we need to be proactive and reactive with the community. Any pro-activeness needs a matching reaction from other party. Similarly any pro-active need immediate reaction from your side. If not, it is a shake up of a dormant state to shift a position and get to slumber mode again.

My understanding is this: Any human being needs to be active and work pro-actively and reactively with the surroundings to have an energized life. It is better to quit the place, when the desired exchanges are not available for you.

Better advice than saying "be proactive" right ?

Paradox that Collaboration is still an Issue

Paradoxically, in this age of twitter, blog, wiki, portals:
1. email usage has not come down. People still send attachments when they can upload and share a link.
2. Top management still address cross-team dysfunctions due to lack of information flow between groups.
3. Information and knowledge hoarding is still prevalent and is considered a strategy for safe employment.
4. Employees still rely on newspaper and finance portal to get "breaking news" stories of their own company.
5. Innovations, rewards are at group/division level improvements and not at company level.
6. Training sessions are still around, when a team of trainers could put together a You-Tube learning program for users in a span of hours. "Best of" series is never commissioned in organizations.
7. Presentations still have text text text. Why not publish a book, instead ?
8. When you can get slick and multi sensory medium to tell stories, why still stick of PPT and Word or their open office equivalent?

hmm. Be serious to look at platforms and distributed communication solutions for a revived organization.

Open all doors. Do not be Translucent in the name of transparency.

What is a good communication ?

What is a good communication ?

There are lots of way to get a point across. The best and most preferred one: TALK.
In professional environment, is it sufficient though ?

When every person in their roles are awarded multiple responsibilities, wouldn't it help, if I remember the context, why,
1. A discussion went a certain way, OR
2. The information and advice provided in taking a decision OR
3. The current problem is linked to my earlier/prior action OR
4. The assumptions, were left unaddressed/unstated during prior meetings ?
5. Did I confuse between my 2 distinct responsibilities when we talked last time ?

TALK is a transient medium. To give credence, it is always required to create a record that leaves a trail to trace, track and find out where the deviations occurred. When things go right, the records give a case study for future team to follow.

Have you noticed that many times, bad news is always learnt through long winding emails ? Is it fear of guilt or fear of retribution ?

Avoiding any of these problems always requires diligence, discipline and detailed record keeping of you, your customer and your customer bosses.

A unknown side effect is that, you will learn to do your duties in more organized manner, as you cannot keep a bad communication in your records.

"Leave a Trail" was my main message in this appraisal cycle.

Polite, Pleasant, Persistent

Today, I got to talk to one of my colleagues who has joined me recently. He was very upset at the fact that I keep giving him work, before he gets to complete the first one.

Our discussion continued as follows:

me: I like people who close the loop. Having too many things in plate and just showing the first work is not acceptable. I have given feedback after my review on past 2 occasions and you have not shown progress on those assignment.

Colleague: How am I to take up past work, when a new work comes my way ? This is out of context as I have come to you for review of the third assignment.

me: I am wondering what you will do to my feedback on this one. I cant help imagining that you will be onto something else and forget this one.

Colleague: How do you think I can cope with the multiple work you give me. I am sincere, coming to office, staying late to finish what you tell me to.

me: My dear, adaptability is the key. I do not give 3 work at once. There is time gap between first and second. What you do in the time gap is the solution.

Colleague: Are you telling me, I am not doing my job.

me: hmm. all I want to say, getting one step ahead is important. When I give you second assignment, you should be able to give me the first assignment for my review. When you submit the second one for review, you should get working on first assignment review. When I give you third one, you should be able to submit the first for review.

Doing this, who has more work on their plate ?

Colleague: .......

me: What is on your mind?

Colleague: I come asking for help and you seem to be too busy. Hence I have got to do lot of work, before I get to understand what you want.

me: That is typical of any manager. If things are priority for you, I am sureyou will seek to find me free and ask me for help, at any cost. When I turn you off, it is first impression for me to judge, how good you are as a professional. A good professional will resist urge to do hard work and seek help at any cost.

Colleague: Wouldn't you then perceive me as a hard nosed selfish guy who overrides or cares less of others to get his job done. Would you talk to me, which is already a trickle for me.

me: You are right. I am wary to entertain such people. It is all in the personality. You need to be polite, patient and yet persistent. It is a skill that you need to develop for getting to next level you have asked me in earlier occasions.

Colleague: Hmm. let me try. But how all 3 are possible still looks crazy like you :) to me. Do you have an example up your sleeve ?

me: hehehe. Let me try cooking up something for you.

Polite: "Can I have a time from you. I need your advice on the assignment I am working on."

Pleasant: Catching me near water cooler - "Atlast I got to get a glimpse of you. What keeps you busy these days?" After answer empathize. "A gentle request: I hope you remember my request earlier ? Let me know whenever you can spend a few minutes."

Persistent: Repeat above at intervals that are not obstrusive enough and till you get the audience. Like, after a couple of days, "I know you are leaving and looking tired ? Can I meet you first thing in morning, to clear myself from your way. This intermediate time has give me more clarity, but I still feel I need help."

How many times, have you accomplished more than expectation by being polite, pleasant and persistent. Haven't they become your fans and grant you first right of disturbance when you need them later?

Communication with multiple stakeholders

The biggest challenge faced in my current project is the multi channel communication and the variety of content that need to be dealt with.

Different businesses together are required to own a project part and with no relationship of their users with other business users. Thus, this is still difficult, as one process and one set of styles are not acceptable to the other divisions.

Further more, the integrated team which conceived the project is not the end target audience nor has convinced them about this importance.

Amid such tough challenges and constrained timelines, the only silver lining is creation of another IP within the group.

Hope at end of this project I would be able to post some answers.

Parrot Lines

It is often a sub conscious act that we make monotony of ourselves by repeating our pet ideas, themes, defenses for our line of thinking, with various people, forums, and rake the topic when there is a minimal pause in conversations. Think of times, when you spoke of a topic with same sentences with same group or multiple people at multiple instances. You will often see it when we say the same story over and over again.

It is important to understand the power of this situation - "Parrot Lines".

Parrots are used in India to forecast your future (Still very popular). They are trained to see the color of a card deck and say exactly the line that is appropriate for the card. So the foreteller person,plays a mind game with you. He says that the parrot has intelligence that it chose a color card and after completing his reading, the parrot will speak a line that is apt to the contents in the color card. He says that what he said by seeing the color card that Parrot picks up is validated by parrot again. Hence, having an alibi say the same thing, makes you believe that it is about "YOU" and so the future truth is bare open by parrot and not the foreteller person.

1. Parrot lines are instruments that serve the cause of focus and discipline. Saying them again again in same way, seeks to drive the seriousness of the point and hence rallying teams is easier. At times, they signal closed mindset as well. Rephrasing the parrot lines and reasoning the various other thinking hats, may seek to open the person for better insights, or you know where you are headed if any good discussion always ends with the same parrot line.
2. So be it a peer, juniors/seniors, bosses, customers, vendors, partners, it is important that they know a consistent picture of you when you are not around. Parrot lines help this cause.
• For example, when my boss asks any of my team members about a task/assignment, the member will recollect to give an answer that satisfies me and then my boss. Because, my questions are parroted every time in more or less the same sequence, the team member will exactly know the questions, will answer according to my order.
  
3. Parrot lines can also serve a good reminder message for the critical success factor that is in consideration.It could be like:

• We need to be careful if this would exceed the scope. The scope is for 80 screens. In our recent project, this is the favourite line, I start with and end with in a discussion.
• I would prefer to put more resources and effort, but still schedule constraint may not be addressed. In one of the projects,that I am unable to close (yes, my failure as on this writing date), this is the parrot line, I repeat to customer for every request.

Parrot lines, help a manager to rally the team to a cause with commitment on "passion" than just monetary considerations.

• Imagine the cognitive load, you are putting on me and other reviewers for this output. Can't you make it more easy to comprehend? My favourite line to all my team members, to push them for better output and buy myself more time for task on hand. ;)
• What is your value in this system if you are just a postman, transferring deliverable from one to another? Again my parrot line to all my team members to think of their value in their system. (inherently to reduce the cognitive load on deliverables, that would have been passed without you in the system)
  

Parrot lines are important to put things in perspective. Perception is built over a period of time looking at consistent and inconsistent behavior of group (mostly senior management leading by example, needs to be careful about this one). When I need more than realistic expectation, my parrot lines are:

1. Let us get it done for leaving a legacy and add it to our portfolio first. It is up to company to leverage it or not.

What parrot lines do you have in your arsenal and are you conscious about it?

Project Outsourcing Commandments

Customer is king. Customer decision is final. King's deliverables should be good and on time. There can be many statements validating customers importance. Yes, it is important to drive the point to ensure greater customer satisfaction. But it is equally important for customers to know when and how projects can be turned downside with their own actions/statements.

Few don'ts advice to my customers and prospects will be:

1. Never give a project without internal commitment: Who needs to review, who needs to approve, who needs to be involved, who will pay the invoice, is important to be on board from first time.

2. Never give feedback more than twice on a file: First time, the delivery has all the passion in it. Second time, the feedback on issues seen are considered learning, third time, the moods/mindset and expectations are understood. But from this time on, more feedback will only add to low motivational work. The fixes would be done just to satisfy you, without any passion or brain behind it. If the release is not up to your expectations, send email that you do not consider it as a release at all, and still keep only 2 review cycles.

3. Treat Review cycles with seriousness: Ensure you dedicate time, stop reviews after a optimum batch size(say 25 local issues and/or 5 global issues) in one review cycle, 5-6 localized issues in second review cycle. Period. Validate issues fixed please.

4. Delay the start of the project, but never delay the completion date. The date committed during project start is known to all (senior managers of both companies), but changed dates are hardly communicated unless in case of escalations. The initial buy-in will see to it that projects are on review radar, but past initial deadlines, it is left on excel sheets/Gantt charts within project teams.

5. Escalate without bias: Never escalate only when there is a problem that is discomforting you. Escalate and demand when normal, routine deliverables are missed. Treat escalations for support deliveries as well, like meeting minutes, discussion notes, future commercial implications, tracking requests for fix, changes, etc.

6. Ask for senior management attention, what ever your size be: The seniority can be decided by the vendor. But a non-project senior person is necessary to provide attention and consultation on project from both sides. If this is not there, project teams will tend to do things comfortable to them but not to their respective organizations.

7. Praise the team: US customers do this. We love it. But in India, these are more subtle. A behind the scenes word of mouth is very nice for managers and seniors, but a word of applause is required for project team workers.

8. Accept for delays and contingencies at both ends: You do not need a status report to tell you who is delaying what. Delays are inevitable at both sides. It is important to acknowledge or force an acknowledgement in email, so that they do not become a habit.

9. Provide enough references/source/stories: Well, this sounds like why i need to give the project to you. However think about it differently. Giving a project is no letting go of your commitments. It is to do things smartly and differently. Smart way, is to outline your needs progressively based on vendor thoughts. What you have in mind is validated/invalidated by similar prior experiences available with vendor. What you need is executed differently with added bonuses of giving away the maintenance and support hassles.

References/Source examples/Stories gives better clarity on expectations and aid in realistic schedules and deliverables matching expectations.

10. Prioritize what you need: As a vendor I can be willing to give a "free" lunch. But it is free only for a day. What lies ahead is more investment. Hence prioritize and do not ask for "free" lunches unless there is a need for the same. Example, You ask for a blog engine, I give "content engine" free. To manage, govern and administer the content engine, is really additional investment from your side. Do you really need it ?

11. We work mutually for better appraisals: You may hate me saying this. But at the end of the year, my project and yours too will be evaluated for WIN. Hence WIN-WIN is a must for a serious engagement. When either of our appraisals and more money is in danger of getting lost, we will not be able to get together at any levels - professional or personal. Hence mutual respect is governed by more serious personal money at stake.

Can we strive for a better appraisal partnership please ?

And few more, may be in next posts.

Project Stand Lessons from my daughter - Power and Sweetness of "NO"

Once in professional life, there would be at least one mentor required who comes in as an "Angel" exhorting you to practice saying "NO".




If you are like me, you would detest the fact that it is quite opposite to what parents teach - Saying No to people is rude and at times a sign of weakness or failure. Well, you will also like the perception that your friends, peers and most of all your bosses detest openly with people who stop work by saying "NO" when something extra comes their way or there is an unbalanced load of work on some one else. You get the air that you are not one of them and are respected for the "attitude"!




Are you one of them ? Well, both profiles are a manager's nightmare. It is important to make the "YES worker" and "NO worker" normalize their stances. My tough stance as manager is always manifested for both these profiles.




Why "YES worker" needs to be normalized - Wouldn't such resource earn good reputation for the manager? Almost Yes in a myopic view. Consider this:




A senior manager sees the "YES worker" working late many times. When there are no pressing things and things are going smooth, have not you heard the senior manager commenting in meetings that resources need to be taken care better, there should be more balanced distribution of work and that stress needs to be addressed as the pressing issue ? Would the same response come when an entire team is genuinely working to meet stringent fires and there are escalations looming large threatening the senior manager's time? In effect, the "Yes worker" suddenly introduces "Stress" on the entire system and team along with skewed balance of work. Don't they divert your energy from more productive and lovable things to do in the day ?




Well then "NO worker" must balance the equation rite ? Almost No except if you develop the knack of saying "No" my daughter way :)




My daughter starts any request with "Na na" - her vocabulary for saying "No" (refresh with this post - Closed vocabulary set). However the timing and sweetness is to make you request more with valid reasoning rather pampering. Once the reasoning is valid, she again tries to divert attention by acting a little "snob". Crying or asking for something that was promised last night.




Once you get her last demand, she gleefully accepts the request. So what great lesson does that teach?


1. Always use "No please" together for more information.


2. Empathize your earlier situation to see if there is recognition for your past work


3. Become a "YES worker" immediately on accede of request.




Why you should not say "Yes" with every request. Well my daughter learnt from her mom, that accepting a compromise that she is not fully convinced or giving in without a murmur sets the expectation every time from the time the implicit obedience is given. It becomes a norm from that time onwards. It becomes routine and change always is painful - even if a child wants to change it.




Hence say "No Please", but work for the manager who empathizes the situation and requests you for that extra work the organization or a earlier goof up requires now to be solved. At the end "working" is the only way to live up to your reputation.




You end up stronger and powerful with this strategy. Isn't it ?

Sensitivity

In recent past, I tried to move from micro management to try and bring in more empowerment to my team. When I was explaining how to approach a customer requirement and frequently I have to explain that the fit and finish is lot left to be desired during my review, I wanted a "word" that I can always ask and establish the context for discussion easily.

After much long speech explaining what I need multiple times and thinking over it for couple of weeks, I got the "eureka!!" moment. The term is "Sensitivity and reduction of Cognitive Load". This post is about first - Sensitivity.

Isn't the most important thing any human being in personal or professional life requires is "Sensitivity".


Sensitivity
1. Think the pains of sales to get the business you have in your hand.

2. Think the pains of a manager in taking down notes of issues that you left open for them to find.

3. Think the pity of your users using your work, in going to live with the pain as it is mandated by the company.

4. Think about the appraisal your client is going to get for being responsible in giving the business to you.

5. Think about the constraints in real world the manager is going to face in making decisions of either schedule or quality.

6. Think about the shareholders investment (if you are one) in your company. Does not the company ability to keep its promise depends on the revenue you earn with your rendered services .

7. Think of your team member who is going to take over from you and work in lesser time that assigned to you and does not have the luxury of the same background that you work.

8. Think the marketing guy who is going to write about your work and try earn some brownie points over competitors hoping to make some big orders.

9. Think about the sales guy missing their commission and hence breaking a promise to their loved ones.

10. Think while making edits to a document or file of another author in having to review your work entirely to know what has changed ? Would you not make sense by providing a mechanism to highlight changes to make lives easier?


Would not these thoughts bring to you the desired qualities that any company expect in you ?
Having thought at above topics, what is your action ?

Project Stand Lessons from my daughter - Closed Vocabulary Set

My daughter is now 18 months old. The best period of one's life is to see your very own come to liven you up and remind you what you did unknown.




For quite a few months, I am getting used to seeing my daughter pick up some communicating words. Now she is quite comfortable in her zone of expressing her desires according to her style and it is left to us to understand and interpret it. Which means, she now has enough vocabulary in her set in her own style that is sufficient to make us understand her needs.




Which led me to wonder - Isn't it important that we establish such closed vocabulary set in project teams, which will lead to better communication and the interpretation within the team will always be right every single time.




Thinking of my past, I now realize that this closed vocabulary that we used within ourselves could have been the success for our smooth interaction and greater work satisfaction at Digital Think (my first company job). However, then I was not conscious about this existence and it just happened.




More on the story...


In e-Learning business, we use various terms like STB(storyboard) , UI (User Interface), CDD( Course Design Document), visual design, PI(product integration), CI(content integration) and similarly in quality area SS(Show stopper), NC (no change as against non compliance), Critical, Major, Minor Incidents, etc. If you are reading from e-Learning background, lot of these terms may sound familiar as a mother tongue.Put yourself in shoes of a newbie or from a different industry and try making sense of the short forms and sentences around it. Better still, try talking to your parents with these terms and see their reaction.




While we were practicing it without any hitch or fuss or didn't even find that we are using something different that people outside the group/industry will not understand. My new, last boss in Digital Think, was asking us for details on each of the terms in our off site meeting conducted by my sweet US boss to make sense of what we were talking. Being shrewd (has to be if he has to be my boss ;)) he picked up the vocabulary set very fast and easy.




This brings out 2 important points:


1. Any closed vocabulary set is easy to adapt, comprehend and understand. Think of the languages tribes speak and acquire various dialects of same language.


2. A closed vocabulary set is easy to follow and becomes part of self and peers which leads to better communication, bonding and ease of doing job with a team.


3. As with any language vocabulary, a common team thinking is subtly re-inforced every time. This under current flow making management of employees and their work easier.




4. Further don't you think it with a little creativity that child infuse in a language, we too can Become Child Again ?






However, it took my daughter to make me realize the profound impact of this simple mechanism for creating, sustaining and developing ever challenging high performance teams.




Have you consciously developed vocabulary set for your teams or have you left it to be a sub conscious effort ?

What is your Story?

One of my first assignments/meeting I took part in this company is to create a "service definition" for our "e-Learning Practice". The practice was 6 months new to the company and we were actively in business - Thanks to the "inorganic growth" and the customers who remained with us with the management change. The "service definition" is part of our quality process and systems. The compliance and audit trail will map and match this definition with practice work to ensure we stay on course. Hence falling under the purview of quality assurance team, we were meeting the quality head of the company for mentorship on the thoughts and the steps to create our "service definition".
When the meeting started, we were expecting templates, devilish level of details and forms to be filled in, the non compliance areas and penalties, the drills and procedures, what micro level do we document, track and trace, etc. However, the opening statement is a 2 minute pitch and it was on these lines. (Not reproduced verbatim)
"You are hiring a consultant in a distant location and will be airborne to a client site immediately on offer. What will you tell him and how will you ensure that he does a good job and satisfies the client. The consultant is experienced in the domain but not on the "way" that you expect to "Wow the customer". So how will you communicate the way to the consultant."

Sounds simple? Look at the details - It requires
1. Every single step mapped out,
2. Every single document listed,
3. For every document - a template created,
4. For every template - a design and thought applied,
5. For every design and thought, a checklist prepared,
6. For every checklist, an audit planned, and from here on
7. "A great improvement-fixes-validate" cycle steps declared, defined and detailed.

Did we care for these details when the quality head told this story? Not me atleast, but it was impressive enough to dive into details and start work. But only when we got the job, the "full story" came through as sunrise on a sunny day.

Did the story motivate me - Well "yes" - wouldn't it for you if you are starting a practice or a company on one service ? So can we identify the merits required in storytelling from above case: 1. Make a compelling context bordering on "Worst Case" hypothesis: In this case, sending a fresh hire, however senior to a project and that too on a client partnering role is bound to be scary for every manager, handling projects and clients. However there is always a realization that this could always be a reality in many situations. Hence any document or details required for such a target audience is always going to address all important points in the priority list order.
2. Do not explain the details: The story makes an impact only when felt and not told. For every question or solution, anchor your response to the questions posed by central theme of story. Repeat the story and ask if the Q/A context fits the central question of the story.
3. Practice the delivery: Amitabh and Rajnikanth are iconic superstars for their styles of dialog delivery. Hence the story you say, must be ,with your own conviction and importantly true to your style.

Have you told your story for getting work done?

More on One to One Meetings

After practicing it as initiator for quite some time now, I feel the success of one-one lies in the inherent values present in the process itself.
1. Suits both Introvert and Extrovert behaviours: For people who are introvert or extrovert, one to one is an ideal setting. Extroverts can let go their feelings more forcefully while introverts will try to submissively but subtly put their points across.
2. Air of Confidence : News in the room is known to ONLY two people. So each of the parties know well who the source of any unwanted, unnecessary leakage is. Since it is a boss-subordinate relationship, it is always the respect for each that would make the sharing of news easier. This is important to be in "Sync with the ground realities" and getting the "pulse" of people before commitments made to the management.
3. Short and Sweet: This is something I used to like. It helped me improve my communication better. Whenever I need to ask a question to my remote boss or convince him of something closely affecting me, I felt the need for preparation to cover as much ground in the discussion within the available time. It helped me hypothesize situations and prepare statements that would lead to the points, I like to hear or get addressed.

Have you a good case to share for one to one meetings ?

Evolution Story - Power of Need

The team that I inherited have many things in common - long time bonds of 3+ years with same company and almost all Maharashtrians. This would be the most ideal suited team for any manager - consistent performance, all good proven horses for longer races, great comfort factor and synergies within members, solid back up without expressing authority - What more could I ask for?

Isn't it the dream team that a manager would like who can spend time focussing on tasks at hand rather than work on individuals to ensure bonding and manage expectations and attrition which take time away from productive work ?

When such teams exist and you are new and want few tuning to be done for newer business needs, one long lesson I learnt after 1 year is to make the change a compulsion not through brute force or management decision but bring in the Need.

Case in Point: Because of the close knit nature, business was done as usual in tea breaks and regional language "talks" in canteen and numerous informal means. What this means to a manager is to be careful in bringing in fresh talent in the team and yet maintain the team spirit. Further with business expansion on the cards, there is always the lurking danger that the team will travel to various locations and still the "camaraderie" needs to be present from distance.

These required tapping the formal communication channels and utilizing them effectively. Making sure that formal communication means are practiced in a safe closed environment and improved, while informal channels will still act as life support system till the protocols and understanding is in place.

However, this realization seemed more compulsive only to me to ensure change happens and it happens fast. But moving from "comfort" zone of a well entrenched team (not just one but many) is a typical "new manager syndrome. It is tedious, pisses off most people and some consider it to be a case of "false alarm" or pressing the "panic button" too early.

The change happened recently when we were in fire fighting mode and the blame game started in a project. THe same project has panned many blog titles in last month :). The team members in the hidden firing line ( behind me), as if by magic were writing and sustaining themselves against the onslaught through carefully drafted emails, status updates, clearing the intent and scope of deliveries, making sure that "HELP" is duly recognized explicitly, telephonic talks, reference to discussions and surprisingly not wanting my interference.

The stress and strain of the entire episode led me to know the power of need and now our team have a couple of members who can be marketed on their own. I still have to work on the remaining team.

Can you help me with "NEEDS" you "CREATED" for change management?