Category: Everything else

On Innovation

What picture comes to mind when you think of an innovator?

Let me guess – Probably somebody like Einstein or Edison.. Shock of unkempt air, absent minded and able to think of crazy unheard of ideas. Or maybe some creative artist or story writer who has the ability to think out of the box?

Jack Welch (legendary GE CEO) would shake his head at that definition. He defined innovation simply – Take an existing best practice and make it slightly better. That’s it! He wasn’t particular about where the ‘best practice‘ was from as long as it was indeed a ‘best’ practice. So, during his tenure at GE, he was insistent on ensuring they took the best ideas in the industry from all around them and in the process of executing them at GE, they made changes and innovated continuously.

I found this very uplifting. Now, if I was looking to build a system for myself, all I needed to do is look around for people who do something better than me, understand how they do it, copy their method and tailor it to my needs. And voila! Innovation is on it’s way..

Jack Welch simplified ‘innovation’ in my eyes. And what’s more, I realized that after a lot of copying, you tend to truly understand what works for you and, in true time, develop your own style!
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Source: Weekly book learnings

Imagine you were passing a construction site..

.. and you saw one of the masons scurrying about seemingly confused. Let’s imagine you stopped him and asked ‘What are you building here?’
And let’s imagine for a moment that he says ‘I have no idea’.

How would you react?
Would you wonder if the mason is crazy?
Would you wonder why resources are wasted without purpose?
Or would you feel it is okay?
Why is it that that a ‘busy’ purposeless construction worker sounds so absurd to us?
Why doesn’t it sound as absurd when we say the same about our lives? Why is that so easily accepted?
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My personal opinion is that we have an issue with being ‘planned’. This is equated to being boring of course. What we often miss, in my humble opinion, is that changing the plan is part of the plan..

Celebrating the genius of Paul Aaron Scholes

The adage ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’ tends to be overused but how else can you explain the resurgence of many a sporting great in the twilight of their careers. Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Zinedine Zidane (France) Sachin Tendulkar (Indian cricket team) come to mind as legends that have seemingly defied age and reinvented themselves time and again. No matter what the sport, you always have legends who you learn never to write off..

English football over the past couple of years has ensured Ryan Giggs has had his due. He has scooped a couple of awards that are well deserved, of course. And now, he seems to be rewriting records week in week out. Appearance records, goal records, longevity records all seem to be going his way. There is a clear parallel to cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s career as well – he also seems to be racking in accolade after accolade week in, week out. ‘Legend’ is an adjective that tends to be overused but both these men have ensured that they fully deserve the praise.
While Ryan Giggs and a host of other footballers are in the spotlight however, there is one other footballer who often goes unnoticed. For the 11 Premier League medals and 4 FA cup medals that Giggs has to show for, Paul Scholes has 9 and 3 in addition to the 2 UEFA Champions League medals they both have. And of course, while Giggs has been taking defences apart for 20 years, Paul Scholes has been the virtuoso conductor of the Manchester United orchestra for a good 17. And one might argue that his greatest fault may have been to play in the same generation as Ryan Giggs.. as he has never quite gotten the recognition his genius deserves.
What is genius though? Is it measured in the number of medals? Is Wayne Bridge, as a result, a greater player than Alan Shearer? To this blogger, true genius elevates complexity to simplicity, true genius makes the game look ridiculously easy and true genius gets you torn between two impulses – first, to go on to the pitch and try what you see on TV yourself and the second stronger one that just urges you to clap and enjoy the artistry on show. For it is artistry that makes Federer the undisputed tennis great of the generation, not the grand slam count. The grand slam count is but a statistic. And statistics cannot never measure the joy Federer’s artistry has brought to the life of a fan. Statistics are incapable of measuring a moment of Zidane magic, are unable to sense the pulse of a connoiseur when Tendulkar hits a picture perfect straight drive that races to the boundary, when Kobe Bryant effortlessly sinks a 3 pointer when the Lakers most need it..
And that is why statistics can never do justice to the genius of Paul Scholes. The joy of watching Scholes completely control a football match with his mastery is unparalleled. Nouveau Barcelona fans will point to their ultimate pass master Xavi who is genius in his own right. Paul Scholes, however, is the complete football midfielder. After all, it was Xavi who said of Scholes in February this year ‘A role model. For me, and I really mean this, he’s the best central midfielder I’ve seen in the last 15, 20 years. He’s spectacular, he has it all, the last pass, goals, he’s strong, he doesn’t lose the ball, vision. If he’d been Spanish he might have been rated more highly. Players love him.’
And yes, I can heard many cry out about his pretty horrendous tackling. Genius, very often, tends to have a dark side. Zidane did, George Best did among others.. and Paul Scholes does as well. It’s his way of showing us that he is mortal as well. This blogger’s only regret as a Manchester United fan has been not being privileged enough to have seen more of Paul Scholes. Having followed United since 2002-03 and week in, week out since 2006, Paul Scholes has never ceased to enthrall. The joy of a perfectly weighted Scholes pass that splits a defence open, the mastery behind a perfectly placed 60 yard ball that lands at the feet of the receiver, the raw power behind a perfectly placed volley at the back of the net – transcends clubs, fans, supporters. Genius tends to render rivalries irrelevant.
And yet, it is not for football reasons that this blogger looks up to Scholes. It is for the simple fact that Paul Scholes has stayed true to his goal – ‘To enjoy football, and not the life of a footballer’. During a time when multi millionaire sportsmen seem to live in an alternate universe, Scholes’ ideal day is spent training, followed by time with his kids and maybe some television. And Scholes being Scholes is probably even thankful to the almightly for the presence of a teammate like Giggs who has ensured he does not have to bother with the media and the limelight. No, Paul Scholes is a football man. That is what he loves doing. Simple. No nonsense.
If we are lucky, Scholes will decide to play on for another season before he hangs up his boots. If Ryan Giggs retires at the same time, the media will be all over Giggs showering one accolade after another and Scholes will be written about as another one of those greats who probably never got the credit or praise he deserved. People will speak of his eye catching passes, his spectacular goals and they will move on. News stays fresh only for a few hours after all.. But, football will be poorer for it. Football would have lost an artist, a role model for many a youngster, a humble family man, one of its few remaining ‘one club men’ – all rolled in one.
This blogger is reminded of an article written ages ago by a leading journalist on Sachin Tendulkar accusing the Indian media of taking him for granted.

‘It is unlikely that the tourist guide loitering on the perimeters of the Taj monument would have appreciated its timeless beauty — and even if he did, it is less likely that he might have pondered its historic value to a civilization.’
It is much the same with Paul Aaron Scholes. We know not what we will miss..

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‘My toughest opponent? Scholes. He is undoubtedly the greatest player of his generation’ | Zinedine Zidane
A Paul Scholes moment – UEFA Champions Leagues Semi Final 2007/08 – Manchester United vs Barcelona
And Paul Scholes – he makes goals..

Are you making something? – Seth Godin

Making something is work. Let’s define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.

Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up… she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.

Two weeks ago, I took a five-hour plane ride. That’s enough time for me to get a huge amount of productive writing done. Instead, I turned on the wifi connection and accomplished precisely no new measurable work between New York and Los Angeles.

More and more, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I’m writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.

One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:

The two-device solution

Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.

Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking… anything that doesn’t directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not… draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don’t like the results from that line, draw a new line).

Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, “break time.” And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you’ve just learned something important.

Go, make something. We need it!

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Another Godin masterclass. Time I give this a shot.

Using momentum to our advantage

I am learning a thing or two about momentum of late, particularly as I’m beginning to pay attention to it. It is most obvious in sport, of course. An average team can be unstoppable for a period of time and one defeat (and an accompanying loss of momentum) can result in a slew of bad results.

We experience momentum on a daily basis. If we wake up in the morning with a positive sense for the day, follow it up with a good breakfast and whatever else constitutes a good start, there is a good chance that our day will only get better. I’m sure we all remember days when sleep felt like a waste of time because the momentum was just SO good!
On the other hand, it is equally easy to experience the opposite. Lack of sleep coupled with meeting a jerk on the bus/train and a frowning colleague or a bad meeting to start the day can absolutely kill it as well.
Now, this post is not so much about what to do to turn things around when things are not going your way but to simply take a step back and view things differently. (even if slightly differently)
My analysis on my own productivity over the past year via my patented scoring system has been that I have typically 2 productive days in a week. And 3 in a good one. And I am beginning to use this information to my advantage. Yesterday, for instance, was a statue day and nothing seemed to be going wrong.
When I apply the law of momentum on this problem, the solution was simple – stop doing stuff and just go to sleep i.e. break the momentum.
I did.. Slept 8 hours, got off to a good start and I don’t quite feel like going to bed today. I will, of course, so I have a shot at ensuring tomorrow is a better day..
Something to think about, maybe?
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Please note that this post takes a day-to-day perspective. We can of course zoom out and study these things week by week or month by month.. I just prefer breaking the problem down.