Month: February 2014

Confusing decisions and results

One of the hardest things to do in a game of poker is to separate decisions and results. If the focus is on results, the game can quickly become an exercise in gambling. If the focus is on decisions, the game becomes rooted in logic and sense.

In poker as in life, decisions are best made using a process. However, in both poker and life, there is no guarantee that results will follow decisions. It is easy to assume a great result followed a great decision and vice versa.  

So, if you’re experiencing a bad result – go back to the decisions made. If the decisions were the result of a good process, then revisit the process. If you are convinced the process is a good one, don’t worry about a bad result in the short term. You will definitely make more good decisions than bad in the long run. And that makes all the difference in the world.

PS: It’s hard not to question your process and thus, yourself, when results don’t go your way. Keep the faith. You are meant to learn something from these experiences.

Imprints, peacocks and our legacy

People of influence in our formative years leave indelible marks on our lives – I call these marks imprints. Kids, for example, always carry imprints from parents and key teachers through life. If a child’s parents were harsh and critical, the chances are high that the child carries those insecurities for life. At the same time, if you find a child with parents have been largely supportive, you probably have a kid who is confident of his/her decisions and open to failure.

While imprints are best made in our formative years, an open person can continue to be impressionable as he/she grows up. The more positive imprints a person experiences, the more likely that person is open to more. Conversely, people who’ve been scarred early are going to be very hard to influence/change. In short, both of these create recursive loops.

There are a couple of questions that arise. The most obvious one is if we are generally impressionable or not. Do we employ wariness or openness as our default reaction? Being wary is safe and risk-free while being open can bring a combination of learning experiences and failure.

The most interesting implication, however, is on how we do as people capable of leaving an imprint. We leave imprints in 2 ways –

1. In positions of influence or power – As parents, elders, managers, leaders, and teachers.
2. In every day-to-day interaction. The impact of the imprint is largely proportional to the size of the personality.

The size and impact of our imprints are not to be underestimated. For example, a friend of mine used to regularly sing in her primary school years. In the sixth grade, she participated in a school play during which the teacher in-charge told her mother that “She’s like a peacock. It works best when she keeps her mouth shut.” She has never sung in public since.

I don’t intend to take moral high ground here. I am sure I’ve made remarks that have scarred people – especially as an insecure teenager with a strong personality. But, after having experienced both positive and negative imprints, I’m learning to be careful.

The lesson for today is simple – make a conscious effort to think about the kind of impact we have on people in every interaction. I would hazard a guess that the sum total of these imprints over the course of a lifetime is truly game changing and probably our only real legacy in this world. Let’s ensure its a good one.

How to think vs. what to think – The 200 words project

Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from Clayton Christensen’s wonderful book – How will you measure your life?

Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, requested Prof Clay Christensen to visit Intel headquarters and explain his famous theory of disruptive innovation. When Clay arrived, Andy said he could only spare 10 minutes and asked Clay to explain what it means for Intel. Clay instead showed Andy a diagram of his theory and began walking him through it.

Ten minutes in, Andy interrupted impatiently – “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

“Andy, I can’t.” Clay persisted and went on to share the story of the disruption of the steel mill industry.

When he finished the story, Andy said, “I got it.” and explained how it applied to Intel.

Clay knew that Andy knew more than he would ever know about his business. Instead of telling him what to think, he taught him how to think.

A great lesson for us to apply as and when we are asked for counsel by our clients, team members and friends – let’s focus on setting a frame i.e. “how to think” (for example – in such situations, it is worth asking ourselves the following 3 questions..) rather than giving specific “what” advice.

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Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com

“When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.” | Clayton Christensen

Off

I’ve wanted to get into the habit of switching off completely on Saturdays. I managed to do it for a bit a while back but fell back into old habits. There always seems to be so much to do – I work on all my projects over the weekend and it feels like I’m constantly pushing away ideas to the next weekend for lack of time. I should know better – when you least feel like you need a break is when you most need one. Knowing to take time off is a big part of being consistently productive.

So, today will be different. I’m going to switch off completely till tomorrow morning. No checking email and definitely no work. Just a movie, perhaps some reading and a lot of being completely present to enjoy time with family and friends.

If your schedule allows it, I hope you try it too.

No expectations?

One of my favorite Seth Godin posts of all time (there are a few that share this title) is “The Paradox of Expectations”

Low expectations are often a self-fulfilling prophecy. We insulate ourselves from failure, don’t try as hard, brace for the worst and often get it.

High expectations, on the other hand, will inevitably lead to disappointment. Keep raising what you expect and sooner or later (probably sooner) it’s not going to happen. And we know that a good outcome that’s less than the great one we hoped for actually feels like failure.

Perhaps it’s worth considering no expectations. Intense effort followed by an acceptance of what you get in return. It doesn’t make good TV, but it’s a discipline that can turn you into a professional.

I love this post because it highlights something I need to learn. I am one of those who habitually falls prey to high expectations. When Seth published this post in September 2011, I remember shaking my head in disagreement. I didn’t even get it then! So, this post is representative of my own learning curve around expectations. I began seeing the wisdom in having no expectations last year but I’m still far away from getting there.

“Intense effort followed by an acceptance of what you get in return. It doesn’t make good TV, but it’s a discipline that can turn you into a professional.”

I am going to work hard on this. Thanks Seth.

Byron Wein’s life lessons @ 80 years old

Blackstone Vice-Chairman Byron Wein has a lovely list of 20 lessons he’s learned in 80 years on this planet. The full list is here. My favorites from a great list are –

Read all the time.  Don’t just do it because you’re curious about something, read actively.  Have a point of view before you start a book or article and see if what you think is confirmed or refuted by the author.  If you do that, you will read faster and comprehend more.

When someone extends a kindness to you write them a handwritten note, not    an e-mail.  Handwritten notes make an impact and are not quickly forgotten.

Don’t try to be better than your competitors, try to be different.  There is always going to be someone smarter than you, but there may not be someone who is more imaginative.

When meeting someone new, try to find out what formative experience occurred in their lives before they were seventeen.  It is my belief that some important event in everyone’s youth has an influence on everything that occurs afterwards.

Never retire.  If you work forever, you can live forever.  I know there is an abundance of biological evidence against this theory, but I’m going with it anyway.

Founder influences

After a lean last 3 months of the year in terms of reading books, I’ve begun doing some heavy reading over the past few weeks. I’ve been enjoying reading books on technology companies. So, after completing “Hatching Twitter” and finding myself more than halfway on “The Everything Store” (Amazon), “In The Plex” (Google) was a natural choice.

As I’m reading these books, I seem to repeatedly find the power of the influences of the founders. Here are a few examples –

– Steve Jobs “got” music. He was a die-hard music fan and even dated Bob Dylan’s ex-girlfriend. He ended up disrupting the music industry first as part of the iTunes revolution.

– Jeff Bezos “got” books. He was a voracious reader whose first step in understanding anything was to read a book. Amazon’s first foray was books. His initial attempts at disrupting the music industry failed because he just didn’t understand it. Jobs, on the other hand, never really got his head around books because he didn’t believe in them.

– I haven’t read a great Bill Gates book yet but I’d argue that he was probably best placed to understand the power of Microsoft Office in corporates. I know this is extrapolating a bit but Jobs was a far better designer than he was a corporate citizen, especially in his early avatar, and the Mac has never cracked the corporate market.

– Next, new media. Twitter was founded by 4 very geeky founders – one of whom described it as the place to go when he felt alone. Every one of them “got” that. I’d wager that the best new media/”social” start-ups are probably created by geeky founders who’ve fought a lot of loneliness as they grew up and thus understand the real value of being connected online – Facebook and Tumblr seem to support this thought.

I’m not sure what the Google story is, yet, but I’m looking forward to read that. I realize that I’m really cherry picking here – in that these are still relatively young companies and are outliers by nature. But, nevertheless, I find it interesting how the personalities and influence of their founders has influenced their business success.

Remembering the 1h45m commute – Our ability to get used to anything

I was reminded of my long commute year yesterday.

I commuted 1 hour 45 minutes one-way nearly every day in 2012. It started as a 4 month thing and got extended for all good reasons. I remember being completely freaked out by the prospect in the first month. I gradually began accepting it and even shared some of my early reflections in month 2. Over time, it just became habitual – leave home at 7:15am, get to work by 9, work like a mad person as you knew you had to get out by the 5:30/6:30 bus, take some work back on the commute and get back by around 7:15pm.

It helped that there were others who shared the same/similar commute. It created a nice feeling of camaraderie. There were a few who had been doing so for 5-6 years. Over time, I learnt to optimize every part of it – for example, I replaced the last leg – a 20 minute bus ride – with a bicycle ride through a park. This was good exercise even if it was occasionally freezing cold.

That commute serves as a great reminder of our ability to get used to anything. Our minds and bodies are very adaptable and we can thus get used to most things. The unimaginable and uncomfortable can just as easily become habitual. That’s very good to know.

Meera Sanyal, CEO of RBS India and AAP Politician, on women, governance, and India

This week, on RealLeaders.tv, we have Dhanya interviewing Meera Sanyal – a very inspiring leader who has juggled multiple roles personally and professionally. Aside from leading RBS India, she is now working on making a difference by joining the “Aam Aadmi Party” or AAP. The AAP just upset the ruling power by winning the elections in the capital.

I found it impossible to pick out a few excerpts. Instead, I’ve picked out an inspiring paragraph where Meera talks about the changes she drove as the Chair of the RBS Foundation while being CEO. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

“You asked about community involvement.  It’s very interesting that you say that so many leaders whom you have interviewed have that aspect of their life.  The most recent job I held was as CEO and chairperson of RBS in India which I have been doing for the last six years.  I had three parts of that job.  One was the CEO of the bank. That is the front office; the customer facing side, the revenue side, etc.

The second was heading the global share processing center in India which employs over 12-13,000 people. That’s a very exciting part because you have young people and it’s being a grand ambassador for India in one way, presenting the high quality of their services.

The third role that I had was as chairperson of the RBS Foundation. Through the foundation we do the community work or the CSR work.  I have to tell you that that has been the happiest part of my job. I’ve enjoyed all parts of my job, but whenever I’m having a difficult day, then I just go to my memories of what we do at the foundation and that lifts my spirit.  I have really enjoyed that.

How did that start?  I’ll give you a brief answer.  In the early part of 2000, we started a Micro Finance program at the bank in India.  At that time the bank was ABN AMRO and I mentored that program. We started in the early part of 2000 and over the years we have financed (through Micro Finance) about 650,000 women across the country.

I used to love to go out into the field meeting these women and it has made a big difference. At one time our bank held about 25% of the market for all of Micro Finance.  Then it became a part of the regulatory environment.  The banks said that all banks should do it and gradually the share of the pie increased and many people were doing it.  I’m sure if you’re following the sector you know what a lot of problems have arisen through the Andhra Pradesh crisis, etc.  I am very sorry about that because I think it can really have a powerful impact on women’s lives.

Nevertheless as we were doing Micro Finance we found that there were women who were so poor that they were at subsistence level. They could not come to the level of being an entrepreneur. So we set up the foundation which is the RBS Foundation and we said that we will make outright grants to these women.  In the process of giving the grants, we will teach them a livelihood.   We won’t give them money, but we will give them things through which they can start a small business. We will train them and we help them to learn and provide access to markets, etc.  For example, we would give a woman 10 goats, or 20 pigs, or 50 chicks, or 2 beehives and with that we would give veterinary assistance.  How do you feed them?  How do you take the product?  How do you bring it to market?  We taught them how to be a little entrepreneur.

Over the last 5-6 years we have financed and trained over 175,000 women like this. It is just fantastic because the results have been great.  I would say between 60-75% of the women we have financed have turned out to be successful.  And of course, 35-40% have not worked depending on where it is.  Mostly I think that’s a very good result.  Our grants are very small.  They are 5000-1000 rupees. Within a year some of these women were earning 60-75,000 rupees.  It is just magical.  I have really enjoyed it, I have learned a lot. “

Don’t miss the full transcript on RealLeaders.tv

The Peregrine Falcon – The 200 words project

Here’s this week’s 200 word idea inspired by an anonymous writer who came up with this very cool story.

A king once received a gift of two magnificent Peregrine Falcons from Arabia. He gave the precious birds to a newly appointed royal falcon trainer.

A few weeks later, the trainer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived. The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. So, he offered a reward to anyone in his kingdom who could solve the problem. A farmer came in to try and within minutes, the falcon was flying above the palace gardens.

When the king asked him how he did it, the farmer said, ” It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting.”

Despite our huge potential, we often cling and conform to the familiar and the comfortable. Perhaps it is worth examining which branches are in need of cutting in our lives.

clip_image001Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com

‘A man grows most tired while standing still.’ | Chinese proverb