Tag: Thoughts

Perfecting one thing at a time

One thing that I have learnt over the years working on various projects is the need and the importance to ship  on or before time. Want to dot all “i” and cross the  “t’s” and there may be slippages or a “no-go” in project lingo. Shipping things just to get it out of the door [or to look good on project tracker] and it might be ineffective or virtually useless.

Trying to make yourself a perfect candidate before you apply for that role or ask that girl out? Well while you wait and work on that, the bar may keep rising and you or your product might never be completely perfect.

How about finding a problem or an opportunity, identifying what’s most important to get going, setting or identifying timelines, picking the most top priority thing to perfect and work on it till you get it and then ship it out.

Be Agile! Update, re-iterate and ship again.

Shipping often would not only boost your [your teams, your customers] confidence but also allow you to learn quickly from your mistakes and act accordingly. God did not make humans as we are in one day, He took millions if not billions of years to perfect us. He just kept on shipping better iterations.

Focus and Do

Focus on one thing at a time
Focus on one thing at a time and Just Do It!

Focus on one thing at a time for 10 minutes a day for the next three weeks. See the results for yourself. The results should generally talk for themselves. It is better to start and focus on something now than having the same thing on your mind or on your list for the next 10 years.

How to end a meeting?

How do you end a meeting?

Meeting

 

Over the years in my consulting I have seen and used various methods to end a meeting. For most part when participating in a meeting there is no formal closing, you sit, hear, talk and that’s it. Some meeting chair summarised the action points for all the attendees and received an agreement and for rest of the meetings individuals  summarised the action points themselves.

Eve points to an alternate way to end meetings.

The closing round is worth doing, because it gives everyone, in a sense, a “last word”—the chance to get something off their chest that they might otherwise carry around or whisper to their colleagues later. It creates more mindfulness about what just happened—and how things might go better next time. And it lets you know where the group is at emotionally, as well as potential issues to follow up on that weren’t strictly part of the proceedings.

Above all, closing rounds are usually fun and positive. Jokes are made. Thanks are given. Excitement is expressed. In my book, that’s a better way to end than a general trailing off or listing of action items.

The emphasis added are mine. It is important to get things out of your chest and move on with business rather than engaging in water cooler gossip later on. It is also worth sharing and absorbing the positivity (or constructive criticism for that matter) at the end of a tough meeting and get on with the business of getting things done.

Damage

Never ever underestimate the power of word of mouth. Never ever super ever underestimate power of one pissed of customer.

ARN
Have I ever flown through Air France? Do I have any shares in that company? Am I going to fly them anytime soon? No is the answer to all of these questions.

But guess what? Now for the coming few months and years every time I hear about Air France, see their ads and banners I will remember Jay Shah from India and his experience with Air France. I will think of the stranded elderly passengers who could not talk in French or English and how disabled they would have felt. I would think of the guy who was rushing for his father’s last rites [been there, done that].

The story is powerful and the damage is enormous. Even if I incorrectly assume that 50% details are correct, it is atrocious.  Yes, while travelling incidents do happen, but how about Air France training their customer service team some lessons on being compassionate and being more communicative. How about the person who responded to Jay’s blog be more personal and human than acting as a corporation!

To Jay Shah – dude shit happens and I am glad it was you and not me, as I would have completely lost it. I am sorry that you and others had to go through this.

To Air France – Correctly or incorrectly you just managed to piss off hundreds of thousands of potential Indian customers! You managed to damage lots of relationship even before they were born.

 

Observe and listen

Life through a lens
Observe your thoughts and reactions.

Listen to yourself, when you talk to yourself and when you talk to others.

Observe other people’s reaction, expressions and body language when they are speaking to you or others.

Observe and listen to yourself and others when angry and mad, when happy and sad.

Through observation and listening, one may get an understanding of back stories and motivations. About one’s own actions and reactions. You may find out what is really driving your behaviour or boiling in the other person’s head.

Combine the power of observing and listening and use it as a tool to learn more about yourselves and others.

Visiting Temples

I have been visiting the temple as long as I can remember, not one but many. I have a temple made in my own house. It is one venue where I can talk to my CREATOR open and straight. I experience mental peace. This experience of peace, tranquility, and energy drives me to visit temples as often as I can.

GOLDEN TEMPLE(NIGHT VIEW-2)

A friend’s re-share of this post on Facebook prompted me to share the link. What I read makes sense.

Generally, a temple should be located at a place where earth’s magnetic wave path passes through densely. It can be in the outskirts of a town/village or city, or in middle of the dwelling place, or on a hilltop. The essence of visiting a temple is discussed here.

Now, these temples are located strategically at a place where the positive energy is abundantly available from the magnetic and electric wave distributions of north/south pole thrust. The main idol is placed in the core center of the temple, known as “*Garbhagriha*” or *Moolasthanam*. In fact, the temple structure is built after the idol has been placed. This *Moolasthanam* is where earth’s magnetic waves are found to be maximum. We know that there are some copper plates, inscribed with Vedic scripts, buried beneath the Main Idol. What are they really? No, they are not God’s / priests’ flash cards when they forget the *shlokas*. The copper plate absorbs earth’s magnetic waves and radiates it to the surroundings. Thus a person regularly visiting a temple and walking clockwise around the Main Idol receives the beamed magnetic waves and his body absorbs it. This is a very slow process and a regular visit will let him absorb more of this positive energy. Scientifically, it is the positive energy that we all require to have a healthy life.

Do you go to the temple? Why do you go to the temple?