Yes Is A World

#LivingStories
“Find a way to say yes to things”, says Eric Schmidt,  executive chairman, Alphabet. “Say yes to invitations, to a new country, yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job and your next job, and your spouse even your kids.”

#MyLearning
E.E. Cummings couldn't have put it better when he said, “Yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skillfully curled) all worlds”. Truly, saying yes can open the door to so many exciting and unexplored worlds!

Image: Improvised life

Lifework Results Calculator

Entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori believes the formula for calculating the results of someone's lifework is Attitude x Effort x Ability.

#My Learning   
To work the formula into my life I have to commit to an:
Attitude: Constantly demanded perfection for yourself.

Effort: When launching a new project start off with a dream. Once the planning stage begins, become a pessimist in order to recognize every possible difficulty, then it’s back to optimism for thee execution.

Ability: Live by the belief that you have the ability to do anything

The Path of Four-Way Wins

Stewart Friedman, founding director of Wharton's Leadership Program and the Work/Life Integration Project,  recommends pursuing the path of four-way wins. The path comprises practical steps to making things demonstrably better in four domains of of our life,  at work,  at home, in our community and our private life. To begin, do a quick  review to explore: what's important to you,  where you focus your attention and how things are going in each of the four domains. Use some of the the thoughts and experiences of the people given below, help to generate ideas for experiments to better align what matters to you to what you actually do. Design experiments in which you are deliberately aiming to improve your performance and results in each of the four domains.

    1.   Expand your Knowledge

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert cartoons, believes, every adult must have working knowledge of; Public speaking, Psychology, Business writing, Accountancy, Design (the basics), Conversation, Overcoming shyness, Second language, Proper grammar, Persuasion, Technology (hobby level) and Proper voice technique.

       2.   Declutter you Mind

"To compose, I need to be happy and to have free mind space, " says A.R. Rahman the Oscar winning music composer, and Leander Paes, winner of the US Open Mixed Doubles title along with Martina Hingis says, "if I can keep Martina happy,  if I can keep her relaxed,  the tennis I don't even have to worry about. "

Focusing our motivation results in our single-minded immersion and harnessing of our emotions into performing and learning. The emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.

     3.     Dance with your Emotions
"A relationship is like a dance,  says Indian classical dancer Anita Ratnam, "sometimes you are close, sometimes you pull away;  there is passion, anger and forgiveness;  and much like a dance,  the relationship will end one day." 

Every relationship has its share of a range of emotions - most, if not all are impermanent, changing with time, context and our personal and mental growth. Let us make the best of our relationships in our time in the world.

     4.    Accept the Past

"Not surprisingly,  I find myself thinking about that slippery substance - the past - and the infinite variety of human attempts to make peace with it.  The impulse to freeze it into tradition,  to tame into verity,  these are common options.  But just as readily available is that other inconvenient choice,  so seldom exercised - the choice to wonder at it,  too accept it's essential non- graspability." Arundhati Subramaniam in book review of Keki N Daruwala's book Fire Altar in HT

      5.   Accept your Ignorance

"Belief means something that you do not know. You want to assume and bring a certainty to something that you do not know. says Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.  "That means you are concretising your ignorance.  There is no need to know everything.  What I know, I know. What I do not know I do not know."

       6.    Establish a Routine

For geniuses, a routine was more than a luxury - it was essential for their work…Charles Dickens took three hours walks every afternoon - and what he observed on them fed directly into his writing. Tchaikovsky made do with two hour walks, but wouldn’t return a moment early, convinced that cheating himself of the full 120 minutes would make him ill. Beethoven took lengthy strolls after lunch, carrying a paper and pencil with him in case inspiration struck. Ernest Hemingway tracked his daily word output on a chart “so as not to kid myself”. Arthur Miller said, “I don't believe in draining the reservoir you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it,  while I have still things to say.” 

        7.    Measure What You Can Control

Film director Ashutosh Gowarikar's advice to  actor Abhishek Bacchan - do not measure your success by how your film fares at the box office - because that is not within your control.  Measure your success by how you fared with the goals you set yourself for the film. Their success is within your control.

         8.     Be Resilient
"The hardest time to Captain the team is when your are not scoring runs and that's when your character and of leader you are outweighs your own form. The team needs the Captain to be a strong person who enjoys other people's success and sees the bigger picture. " Brendon McCullum, New Zealand skipper.

         9.      Create Lasting Emotional Bonds 

"In every situation, says Deepak Chopra, make it a habit to ask the key questions of emotional intelligence: How do I feel? How do they feel? What are the hidden stumbling blocks? A leader who can answer these questions will be in a position to create lasting emotional bonds.” 

Call to Action

The result of undertaking the practice of the four-way win is a greater sense of control and freedom living in ways that are consistent with what you're passionate about, what you really care about. When people take even a small step that's under their control, that's intentional and that's in a direction that they choose, they feel better about their lives and about the people they're affecting with their actions on a daily basis.

5 Stolen Recipes to Do and Become

A recipe has no soul, You as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” - Thomas Keller, chef, writer, restaurateur.

Every artist gets asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" The honest artist answers, "I steal them."

Here are a 5 stolen life recipes to which I have added my soul (aka my learning spin) to;

1. Adapt to the times

Restaurateurs today, realising that food is not the only carrot drawing diners in are giving more emphasis to the design and giving their places a makeover. Attention is being paid to the decor, layout, music. lighting, the clean fragrance (of herbs or fresh coffee and bread or wood charring in a clay oven) comely staff. All of which come together very nicely to pull in the customers. Ultimately however, as Chef Solomon says, as good as the decor maybe, it will be the food which will pull in the customer.  

Know when to focus on targets, when to pay attention to emotions and when to focus on the changing needs of customers. Be sensitive to the ecosystem and respond accordingly, taking care to never forget your essence.

2. Connect to the environment

When we think of the word 'food', we only think of nutrition, says chef Pankaj Walia. But the truth is our connection with food is deep and spiritual; something that our ancestors realised and respected. Archaeology professor Dr Kurush Dalal recommends slow cooking to establish the connection. Slow cooking, he says, recognises the connection between plate, people, planet and culture; things we have forgotten to correlate these days while munching on fast food."

People, planet and culture - each, some, or all three, are integral to our every action. Recognising the connection between our actions and their impact on the three, can help us become more conscious and connected to our environment.

 3. Connect to the Universe

“You’ll find a sense of calm overtaking you as soon as you pray or sprinkle water around your food before your meal," says Prof. Kurush Dalal. That time - even if it is for a split second - makes you appreciate the world, its wonders and the food on your table. It connects you with the Universe.”

Ritual or ceremony is a celebration, a tradition. Through these rites we re-live, re-enact, honor, remember, and call forth ancient spiritual teachings, tradition and divine spirits. Studies show that they are good for people’s physical and mental well-being. They help make life seem predictable, under control, and meaningful.

4. Have a hobby

Money isn't  the only thing stock market man Ramesh Damani kneads. He has a thing for dough which made him seek out baking and attend a week's bakery course in Paris. Asked for the similarity between brokers and bakers, Damani's reply is, "Both like the feel of dough....and both (investment and baking) need a lot of patience."

A hobby is an echo of the soul, and if you are following your heart, so can be your profession. Seek answers within, discover the parts between your profession and your hobbies which are similar, or support the other.

6. Play your cards wisely

"I realised my face was never going to be my fortune," says  Prahlad Kakkar, ad guru. "(So) I decided to impress ladies by tickling their palate - good food, full-bodied wine, candlelight and my storytelling powers are a lethal combination.  It has always worked. Food is much more than fuel for your body."

Remember what Randy Pausch said, "we cannot change the cards we are dealt with, just how we play the hand."

CALL TO ACTION

Now that you have a bunch of recipes to choose from, make your choice, put the ingredients of your choice into the pot, marinate in a thick sauce of motivation for a few days. Then light the fire of your passion, stir in a good dose of determination and serve. 

Bon Apetit!

How the Coach Helped the "Keen to Grow" Butterfly

The Monarch butterflies are great performers - every year they travel vast distances of upto 2000 miles! During their migration they cover upto 50 miles per day and they travel at speeds of upto12 miles per hour! Now why do you think the Monarch butterflies perfom this stupendous feat? Beacuse they have been doing so for generations. But there was this one ambitous Monarch who wanted to do more. He had four burning desires;

1. To learn new skills
2. To perform better.
3. To develop himself and
4. To reflect on  what he did.

He wondered who could help him fulfil his heart-felt desires, till one day he read (he was the reading sort, as you can see) about how coaches help people who desire to excel. So he checked out the various coaches featured on Linkedin and landed up at one who he thought could help him the most.  The coach was busy, but noticing the eagerness in the eyes of the Monarch and the determined flutter of his wings, he decided to listen to what the butterfly had to say to him. The Monarch explained the purpose of his visit and began by describing about the annual migratory habits of his species, he told him how they had been doing so for generations, and how he wanted to go about it not by instinct, but in a planned and well thought out fashion. Through all this, the coach had said not word, but the Monarch noticed that he had an encouraging smile on his face as if to say 'Go on, tell me more!" 

And so the Monarch proceeded to ask the coach his first question; "I want to hover in the air like a hummingbird so that I can survey the terrain better!"

The coach smiled, and asked him,

"And how soon would you like to fly like a hummingbird?

"Who could help you with it?"

"What's your action plan?"

"When are you going to start?" 

The coach's questions had the Monarch thinking, he realized he had never really thought about his desires in this way! And so he proceeded to ask his second question, "I want to fly higher, better and more efficiently!"

And the coach responded,

"How high exactly would you like to be flying?'

"What techniques are you using at the moment to achieve that height?"

"What other techniques are there, which you haven't tried yet?"

"And what else could you do to acheive that height even faster?"

"OK. Now show me what your action plan is, how you're going to measure your progress and what you'll do when things get tough." 

With every question the coach asked him, the Monarch was beginning to think of his issues in ways he had never before done! He was starting to get clarity about his priorities! And so the Monarch proceeded to ask the coach the third question. "I want to take the next step."

And the coach said,

"So, you want to be hummingbird? Cool! What can you do now to make that happen?"

"And what else?"

"And how are you going to get those things you say you need?"

"How else?"

"When I look at a hummingbird I see feathers, and when I look at you I don't see any feathers...(silence)...To what extent are feathers neccessary?" And how are you going to solve that?"

The Monarch was now in deep thought, slowly a plan for achieving his desires was beginning to form in his mind, but he still had one more question to ask him and he proceeded to do so, "I wonder," he said, "whether butterfly-ing is all there is, and whether I functions as I should?"

And the coach replied,

"Whether this is all there is" and "Do I function as I should?" are two different questions. Which question would you like to focus on today?

"Suppose you have the answer to that question: how does that feel?

"What is the effect of having answered it?"

"What has changed?"

And finally, the pieces began to fall in place for the Monarch. He had the answers to his questions for the fulfillment of his burning desires - and he had thought all of them himself! The coach had offered him no solutions for fulfilling them, but what he had done was far more invaluable - through his powerful questions, the coach had provided, 

• a higher and deeper perspective to his thinking,
• an objectivity to his assumptions and
• clarity about his priorties for achieving his dream of excelling at all the things which he had up to now, done only by instinct. 

Going to the coach was like going to a mental gym, the ambitous Monarch had come out stronger and well-toned in his thinking and raring to go out in the woods and put his plan into action!

He said a heartfelt thank you to the coach and flitted away with a new flutter to his wings.

This piece has been inspired by the delightfully creative blog article A Butterfly goes to a coach by Sandro DaSilva.

Salaam Salamat

Salamat Irani owned the City Bakery at M.G. Road, Pune. My visit to his
bakery was prompted by a desire to buy Pune’s famous Shrewsbury biscuits 

from the Kayani Bakery. My cousin instead recommended Salamat’s bakery, 

which he claimed baked cashew biscuits to die for. So down we drove to the 

City Bakery on Main Street, a place with shelves and bottles redolent of an 

old world charm. The wall behind the old style counter at the bakery had a 

black board that had a humorous quotable quote written in chalk (changed 

every day).Salamat, the curly-haired, friendly and very talkative owner, 

welcomed my cousin (his school buddy) cheerily and on his introducing us, 

chided him saying, ‘what are you doing Rahul, you are starving your guests!’ 

So saying, he opened a packet of his famous cashew biscuits and laid it on 

the counter for us to eat (and of course sample!). Salamat, I discovered, 

knew all his regular customers and made it a point to address them by their 
names, (‘Good afternoon Mr. Joshi, what can I do for you today?’). It was 
highly entertaining and educative to see how Salamat treated his customers
and so I decided to hang around for some more time to watch him in action.
  

To Mrs. Joshi, who wanted to buy buns, he said mischievously, ‘ only three
buns Mrs. Joshi, you must be starving your family! And what can I pack for
your friend over here?’ (Mrs. Joshi’s friend smiled and shook his head, but
you can be sure he is going to drop in again!) An aged Parsi customer 

doddered in looking for kharis and realizing they were not in stock, turned 

to go away,‘chaalo, paisa bachi gayo!’ smiled Salamat cheekily, eliciting a 

smile from the Parsi gentleman. The next gentleman who walked in was 

looking for jam tarts, which were out of stock, Salamat assured him with,

a 'Sorry Mr Fernandes, but you can get those tarts at 4 pm tomorrow 

evening. They will be waiting for you.’
  

In the mean time a lady at the counter asked him for a bill, ‘That will be 
only fifty dollars, Mrs. Sharma, why don’t you buy some more?’

To a customer who was peering down the glass counter at the trays of 
biscuits, Salamat said naughtily, ‘who are you looking for Mrs. Andrews, 
have you found him yet?’ ‘Oh! Just biscuits, is it? I thought it was 
somebody else!’ To every one of his customers, Salamat seemed to have 

something to say which would make them smile – and of course buy more 

than what they originally intended to buy!!
  

Quite apart from the great goodwill and customer satisfaction generated 
by Salamat, what struck me was the way he seemed to 
actually enjoy what he did.

Salamat, the baker and graduate in law seemed to have a great  time 

doing his work! And his highly infectious joy in what he did clearly
rubbed off on his customers, who seemed to keep coming in for more 
– keeping his cash register clicking merrily!

The theoretical aspects to Manmohan Singh's gut feel

At a recent lecture, to a question whether he was guided by theoretical reasoning as against gut feel, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh responded, " I have no definitive answer to your question whether I am guided by theoretical reasoning as against gut instinct"

He went on to qualify his statement by saying "Everybody who is in politics and seeks to influence economic policy and history has some notion about what is workable and feasible. He must have some theoretical perspective while formulating views. Whether it is good or bad, " said the good doctor, "will be judged by history."

A definitive theoretical reasoning, and the answer to Dr Singh's uncertainty lies in the Kolbs Learning Model. According to Kolb "learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it." Let us look at some of the characteristics of experiential learning and see how they apply to the PM: 

• Learning is a continuous process grounded in experience.The Economic Times headlined the story with "Singh gets politician's tone" So the PM (in the eyes of the all-powerful media) has certainly learned well from his experiences!
• Learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world (learning is by its very nature full of tension). Dr Singh, who attained renown as an academician and a man most comfortable in the rarefied world of economic theories, was suddenly thrown into the hurly-burly of Indian politics. His growth as a politician called for his balancing what his heart and mind told him was good for the country, with the steep political cost it would entail. Dr Singh appears to have managed the tensions well - witness the passing of the nuclear deal in Parliament which meant his party had to make deals with unsavory political parties and elements. 
• Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world. From his comments and recent actions, the process of the PMs adaptation to the world of politics may not be complete, but he has adapted - and he has adapted well. (see above).

Based on the above characteristics, Kolb proposed a four stage learning cycle, which looks like this:

 This cycle gives rise to two continuum;

• The Processing Continuum: Our approach to a task, such as preferring to learn by doing or watching (the Active experimentation-Reflective observation axis)
• The Perception Continuum: Our emotional response, such as preferring to learn by thinking or feeling (the Abstract conceptualization-Concrete experience axis(

The PM's comment that one must have a "theoretical perspective while formulating views" clearly indicates his tilt toward the Perception continuum. As a man of compassion and learning coupled with his concrete experiences as the PM of a chaotic developing nation, does his statement at the lecture in Malaysia, indicate his coming of age as a politcian?

Time will tell.

From managing to leading

There are three types of work* that get done in an organization:


1. Transactional work such as administrative and order taking, which benefits individuals


2. Tactical work which is solution focused and benefits employee workgroups


3. Strategic work which is long-term in nature and is


       a. Linked to one or more business goals


       b. Solution-neutral in initial stages


       c. Requires multiple solutions or tactics to be implemented


       d. Benefits  business units and perhaps the entire enterprise

 The emphasis on each type of work shifts as executives rise to become managers and then leaders. While executives are focused on the Transactional, the emphasis of activities shift to more of the Tactical when he becomes a manager. And finally, when he rises to the leadership position, his focus move strategic activities which are long-term in nature.

The activities also define the evolution of  an executive to a leader. However in reality, and more so with entrepreneurs, the nature of activities are more often than not, restricted to the first two - the Transactional and the Tactical. Why is this so? In my experience with my clients, it is because the entrepreneur/leader does not want to move away  from the activities which he likes to do, or else finds himself comfortable doing. There is the risk of failure lurking somewhere in his mind.

Leaders could take a lesson from the leadership style of Kumaramangalam Birla. He leaves all day-to-day operations to his professional managers and focuses only on Strategic thinking and activities.Except when the occasion demands - which is when he has to prove a point, or show his people that something they believe cannot be done, can be done. As happened when Birla overruled his managers  and took the risky decision to buy Novelis for $6billion. Since the decision was his, he took it upon himself to prove to his managers that it was right. 

The Economic Times has a very interesting  account of the turnaround story

*Source: Robinson, D. G., & Robinson, J. C. (2005). Strategic business partner: Aligning people strategies with business goals. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

The Power of Positivity and Vision

In my earlier blog, I had talked of how critical a positive attitude was to strategy making, and had cited the case of such a display by Vivek Nair of Leela Hotels. Another great example is that of Sam Pitroda, advisor to the PM on overall conceptualisation and planning of the Public Information Infrastructure (PII).

The PII project is massive and attempts to do what no one has attempted to do before. The project will create opportunities for the people at the bottom of the pyramid by creating a vast information network that would make India's shoddy, Raj-era governance instant, transparent and ready for the 21st century! Which means connecting 250,000 panchayats by fibre,3G, Wimax and other digital links to schools and even bus-stands!

Merchants of gloom (MoG) say the challenges are severe due to the federal nature of the country's stucture, where there is severe distrust between the state and central governments; even between the states where the party in power is the same as at the centre. Then, the MoGs say, comes the problem of silo-ism between even central government departments. So, say the doom-gloom bunch, it is by no means a given that simply provided the platform, the departments and states will jump on to the PII platform.

in contrast to such cynical thinking, Pitroda's passion and positivity about the project shines through when he talks about the project. India, he says, has a huge infrastructure broadband and GIS ( geographical information system) which has the potential to zoom in on , like Google Maps, on every tree and every panchayat in India. Integrating this infrastructure with the Unique identification Database, which tags every Indian with a unique number, and tagging of every government project would create a public information system accessible to every Indian.

From the days of the rajas to the British to our modern politicians, a handful of persons has controlled information in India. "You can now," says Pitroda, "begin to democratise government, create open government in the true sense, create opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid. This is the vision."

Pitroda's masterstroke of positivity - "I would like to do it in two years."

Leadership lesson: Believe in yourself and don't let nay-sayers throw you off-course. Let your positivity shine through your every action and speech!

The Leader's Call

One day Mullah Nasrullah and his friend went to an eating place to feast on fish. They ordered two pieces of fried fish from the ‘fresh catch of the day’ menu and when the order arrived, Mullah Nasrullah immediately picked up the larger piece and put it on his plate.

His friend was shocked and exclaimed, “Mullah, how indecent of you, don’t you know it is considered bad manners to do that?”

“Alright,” Nasrullah responded, “what would you have done?”

“Taken the smaller piece” said his friend.

“Well, here you are!” said Nasrullah dropping the other piece on to his friend’s plate.

What Mullahji had done was to take an intelligent call on his friend’s “socially appropriate” response to cleverly have the larger piece of fish for himself.

Entrepreneurs too have to take an intelligent call, but of a different kind – when to be hands on and plunge into the day-to-day operations, and when hands off and trusting their managers to deliver.

An interesting example, and one entrepreneurs can learn from, is of the the way Kumarmanagalam Birla dealt with his ambition of taking over Novelis, a company 4 times larger than his, and the how, having bought it over, he dealt with the subsequent turnaround.

The Economic Times has a very interesting article on it.

http://tinyurl.com/3y99y5l

The strategy making game

Sumantra Ghoshal, the late management guru and academic, called strategy the most enticing subject in the management curriculum, and at the pinnacle of the organizational processes. This is so, because planning for the future is about laying strategic bets, which as Ram Charan the other management guru, the other Indian pride, defines as an activity which can:

a. change a game

b. give you access to something you would not have otherwise

c. have a very uncertain pay-off

No wonder the road to strategy-making is strewn with such challenges!

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