Feed-forward !

Its been a while I ve posted something here. Been a week or so. Not that I do not come across incidents that is worth writing about.

Life has never been that dull :) Just that other stuff took priority over posting the blog.

The yearly appraisal season is going on. This is a corporate process when one as a manager, provides feedback and rate his / her employees.

For some people its very stressful season. For some, business as usual.

My personal approach towards giving feedback and rating peoples performance is very basic and down to earth simple. I like to provide the feedback on a continuous basis. Feedbacks, that I derive from the delta between my experiences and the person's experiences. And the feedbacks I give, are in very non-threatening environment and media.

In a hallway. Over cup of coffee. PJs, Story telling. Over instant messaging.

There has seldom been an occasion where I set up One to One meeting with my employee to do feedbacking ! (This has its pros and cons both. )

My main goal always has been, that no one should hear something new and surprising when it comes to this session of feedback and rating. Everyone should know where they stand by this time. Everyone should be aware of the areas they can improve in.

Often I come across a very few employees who do everything right for their experience level. Always surprise me by thinking ahead of me. Getting involved before being asked. Doing things the way I would have done. I find myself in a situation of not being able to provide any feedback that can result in a positive change in those employees.

I had this appraisal session with one of those employees recently. I found myself doing stuff which is more future looking that backward looking. The correct word to explain that would be "feed-forwarding". Its like if you do these things, org will see you there. That "there" is somewhere beyond where the employee is right now.

This is a technique I learnt recently and I am happy with how it works so far.

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When you can not feed-back, feed-forward.

Pressure ! Cooks and crumbles

There are many schools of thought when it comes to the most ancient corporate tool of productivity, called "Pressure".

Some feel we should let the minds free, allow them plenty of time, water, air and food (for thought) and they will come up with the GOODs ! If we apply pressure (in terms of deadline, budget, survival ) the poor souls crumble. They suffocate and even the last bit of possibility of any innovation crumbles to death.

Some feel, if we do work under pressure, we do come up with a solution. We deliver on time, as we are focused and not procrastinating or day-dreaming. The mind is occupied with the thoughts of getting to the result and the consequences of not getting there.

Now, lets take a look at the whole thing slightly differently. Through nature's eyes.

- Under pressure food cooks faster and using less resources (like heat and edible oil)

- Under pressure the debris of nature convert to petroleum

- Pressure difference in atmosphere, cause huge destruction and causes the same debris

Many good examples and many bad examples. So, both schools of thoughts are right. As a result both schools of thoughts are wrong.

Because its not pressure that really determines the consequence. Its the subject under pressure.

So, which subject and what context would flourish under pressure ? The whole question need to be asked and answered every time we generate pressure to get something done. All three parameters - subject, context and pressure need to be thought as single entity to achieve desired result and success.

And sometimes we do not know all three of the parameters before we create the pressure situation. We might know the context, but not the subject or vice versa. Those are the situations, you go with your gut feel and take a risk and be prepared if it back fires !

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I found myself creating undue pressure on an artist to create an unique new art. And the artist revolted that art is something that does not develop under pressure. Which I did understand and felt sorry about doing this. But the artist went ahead and tried the best. The art came out to be a master piece. But the interpretation by the artist is pressure helped the great result.

I think - the outstanding result made it look like that pressure worked.

Chasing our tail

It has been part of life all along.

Right when you are ready to commit to a relationship, a few more conditions will spring out.

Right when you are ready to kick a bad addiction, a situation will present itself that seeks comfort in that addiction.

Right when you want to get over some one, an opportunity will swing by to have him / her for longer.

Right when you need to stay close, you will be drafted.

Right when you need to get away, you would discover the bond.

Right when you finish climbing one peak, the higher peak will be visible.

Right when you are ready with a release a product, a few of the show stoppers will pop up.

Right when you are ready to seal a deal, a few more erratas to RFP will show up.

Ain't we all chasing our own tail ?

Will we ever get there ? Wherever it is ?

We are all in a rat race. Whether we lose or win it, we are still rats.

Right when I slow down and say I do not need to be in the race, the rules change to that of a "slow cycle" race !

Relationship Fuel !!!!

(For the sensitive nature of the event that leads me to write this, I would refrain from writing the story and just mention the moral here. Just the Gyan, no Vikram / Betaal chit chat)

What is needed to build relationship between two human beings ?

Most common and researched answer will be "Love and Trust".

Here is my finding from some of the events today and looking back to many such experiences in the tenure of my life.

Relationship needs any sort of emotion between two human being. They do not have to be Love and trust.

The emotion can even be curiosity, admiration, inspiration, intolerance, hatred -- the entire spectrum of emotion. If any sort of reaction is evoked when two people meet, there will be a relationship. Any sort !

No reaction , No relation :)

PS: I will come back and explain it in much detailed with help of my main characters, Vikram and Betaal, the two splits of the same personality.

Useful Inaction ???

I kept hearing the verses of Geeta again and again in the 23 hour flight back home.

( That is the ONLY music on my iPOD apart from a few HBR audio articles and a few Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Gulam Ali and Fateh Ali Khan).

One particular verse keeps reverberating in my mind, from the Karma Yoga. A simplified translation would be something like this -

"Good Action and Bad Action - both are better than Inaction."

I was trying to put it in context ( a much smaller context) for my 2 weeks of inaction. Two weeks I have been out of fire fighting.

Not talked to a single customer. Not coached / planned with any of the managers or leads.

Not written any critical e-mail.

Not participated in any strategy meeting.

All along I ve just trusted the next rung of people in the team and let the inbox build up. Quite un-like me.

I do not like un-read e-mails in my Inbox.

So, this period of inaction has been good or bad ?

I think it has been tremendously good. Certain communication and development that would have made me un-easy, they have shaped over the two weeks by

other responsible people to the state, that I would ve taken them myself to.

Lot of conflicts resolved w/o me. Few other people taking critical decisions. Team has not missed me at all. I ve not lost cool at all on things not done right.

No one has felt a thing. This is humbling for me and very useful for the next tier of leaders in my team. As they have spent some time on their own leadership style and

pace. Not being judged / coached by me. This is good development.

So, is inaction really that bad ? Or may be that was not inaction after all. May be it was good action !

Then I heard the next verse which translates to -

" Person who sees action in inaction and inaction is action is an intelligent person" :)

Automation - Boon or Bane ?

All parts of our life today is touched by automation of some kind and some level. There is a constant pursuit of human kind, to find and separate the "mundane"

and repeatables and automate them.

Automation has been the prefered way to increased productivity since the invention of "ScareCrow".

Did you notice though, as we keep on defining more and more jobs "automat-able" and keep delegating those to the machine, we lose the skills to do those ourselves ?

I was in SFO to catch a flight to Boston, well advance in time in the queue.

Turned out they have just one "manned" counter and all other counters are automated check-in.

Simple stuff really -

Touch screen, choose language, put the bag on scale, scan your Passport or driving licence and one should be done.

Problem is, there is still a section of population that need human help. The line was like 1 KM long. Few older people in the queue constantly shouting for help.

With all that I still made it to an auto-check in counter barely 45 mins left for the flight time.

Just when I thought I made it, the machine complained that it does not recognize my passport or driving license. For all foreign document holders, I need to go to "manned" counter.

And did I mention that there was a union strike and just one manned counter that day ?

To cut a long story short I missed my flight. The lady behind me also missed her flight and at least 20 others behind that.

All along standing in the line, the lady behind was having real anxious and nervous small talks with me. When I missed my flight, I had a broad smile on my face and she asked "What makes you so happy ? You did not want to catch the flight ?".

I said, "No, now the uncertainity is gone. I am definitely not flying today. And thats liberating" :)

Well.. having said all that Automation is still a Boon.

Planning - a case study !

In a long conversation with a Chinese woman, who partners with my team for a release, opened my eyes to new dimensions of planning.

How big a project can we plan ? Contemporary human being has landed on moon. I am sure that needed a lot of planning and course corrections on its way.

So, even landing on moon seems much smaller than the planning case study I am going to present.

Population Control in China !

A nation with 1.3 billion people today was just 500 Million post world war 2. The population grew at a much faster rate during the 80s.

So the party needed a plan to control it which led to 1979 "One Child Policy".

Now, here are some details of the policy how it works. Some fact may shock you as it shocked me.

1. The minimum age of a MAN to apply for marriage license - 25
2. The minimum age of a WOMAN to apply for marriage license - 23
3. The SUM of ages of both should be minimum 50

With all that a couple goes and applies for marriage license. Now, they can have just one kid.

For the kid - one needs to apply for kid, out of a quota given to each agency for a year. If few of the first births turn out to be twins-triplets, then the calculation churns.

Even if you are going to have just one kid, you can not have it anytime. Each year, each agency gets a number as yearly quota. One has to plan and reserve a number before planning to have a kid that year.

There is a big department that tracks the quotas for each org / agency. Each quota again divides in to smaller ones and from a billion plus to a few hundreds in a spreadsheet level.

Thats a astronomical amount of planning involving 1.3 Billion people and many more to come, in a controlled manner.

Objective, the nation had and the results it is getting, both look perfectly aligned.

Its just matter of time the neighboring India will take the population top spot from China (it might already have - census in India works once in 10 years :)


If such a unthinkable problem can be framed, dreamed about, planned and executed, then nothing is impossible.