tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242372342024-03-07T20:05:02.830-08:00Live Your Highest Vision Now!Sustained Peak Performance for Individuals, Groups and OrganizationsAmarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-2851142541354903942011-06-01T21:40:00.000-07:002011-06-01T21:43:10.604-07:00Life Purpose - Pathway to Highest Vision and EcstasyHere is a <a href="http://omnizient.ning.com/profiles/blogs/life-purpose-pathway-to">new post</a> by Life Coach, Anil Bahl. His advice:<div><br /></div><div><ol><li><i>Simple, make a list of things you Love to do.</i></li><li><i>Look at, as how you can bring it in your everyday life – profession, service, creating awareness, contributing by sharing etc.</i></li></ol></div><div><div>Two steps, and you are done!</div><div><br /></div></div>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-78702164232931212272011-05-24T12:34:00.000-07:002011-05-24T12:54:34.130-07:00When Nothing WorksThere are moments in life, when nothing seems to be working. Things seem to be falling apart. Such moments in life, could be a great opportunities for big breakthroughs in one or more areas of your life. Here is a three-step and three-R formula to review and transform any situation in your life:<div><br /></div><div><b>Reflect:</b> What have you been postponing in your life? Is there something incomplete for long? If yes, this could be a perfect time to clean up your cupboard, financial matters and relationships.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Reform:</b> Pick up a bigger problem, a larger goal, a grander vision. With a wider horizon, your current problems will either disappear or become too small to be 'classified' as a major setback.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Recreate:</b> Who are you? If you are a magnet, then what do the current circumstances reveal about you? Where have been holding yourself back? Go beyond mundane issues of life, Identify your Highest Self, Declare your Highest Vision and work full-blast on your dreams!</div><div><br /></div><div>Are these three steps enough? Or, do you have some 'Rs' to add?</div>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-7353155866904552032010-10-20T10:56:00.000-07:002010-10-20T11:21:15.774-07:00The Productive Power of Siesta<div>I have always loved the concept of taking Siesta during working hours! </div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, many Japansese offices have special rooms for employees to take a nap in the afternoon. Read more on Siesta in various cultures <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta">here</a>. The<a href="http://www.blogger.com/The%20Spanish%20Siesta"> Spanish Siesta</a> is famous too.</div><div><br /></div><div>ANI <a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/30+minute+mid-afternoon+siesta+can+boost+workers'+alertness,...-a0210195584">report</a>s that "Google, Nike and Virgin Active are among some of the companies that already have facilities like dome-shaped, sci-fi-style sleep pods."</div><br /><div>Recently, <a href="http://www.tonyschwartz.com/about.php">Tony Schwartz</a> advocated "<a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2010/09/why-companies-should-insist-th.html">Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps</a>". He identifies Naps as "powerful source of competitive advantage" and shares that afternoon naps are rejuvenating and "also improve perceptual skills, motor skills, reaction time and alertness."</div><div><br /></div><div>Megan Hills lists "<a href="http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/live-smarter/health-and-wellbeing/how-can-an-afternoon-nap-be-good-for-business">Ten tips for the perfect nap</a>", the most important one being the advice to "Keep the nap to 20 minutes or less otherwise you wake in deep ‘slow-wave’ sleep which will make you feel sluggish and unfocused".</div><div><br /></div><div>Back to my siesta pod!</div>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-38438660935188463172010-03-16T01:21:00.000-07:002010-03-16T02:01:40.734-07:00BizVidya - Empowering Entrepreneurs in India<div>Recently, I have been involved with a new initiative - <a href="http://www.bizvidya.net/">BizVidya - Empowering Entrepreneurs in India</a>.</div><br /><div>The latest post is on <a href="http://www.bizvidya.net/2010/03/ideas-worth-spreading-from-tedxgurgaon/">Ideas Worth Spreading from TEDxGurgaon</a>:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica;font-size:12px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; ">After TEDIndia (held in November 2009 in Mysore), TED enthusiasts are showing up in various parts of India – a partial list is here: TEDxAhmedabad, TEDxBaroda, TEDxBengaluru, TEDxChennai, TEDxKonkan, TEDxMumbai, TEDxPilani, TEDxPune, TEDxShekhavati.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; ">This list, at best, is a good start because the awareness about TED is still “poor”, to put it mildly. Many people who registered for TEDxGurgaon (held on Saturday, 27 February 2010 at Epicentre, Gurgaon), did not turn up (without communicating about their absence) and some attendees did not know about TED.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; ">So, the task is cut out for us! Let us do our “two bits” in helping spread TED, a non-profit organization “devoted to giving millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world’s greatest thinkers and teachers”.</p></blockquote></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica;font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.bizvidya.net/2010/03/ideas-worth-spreading-from-tedxgurgaon/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Ideas Worth Spreading from TEDxGurgaon" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(60, 120, 167); text-decoration: none; ">Read the full story »</a></span></div>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-35357481513360629642009-07-30T22:35:00.000-07:002009-07-30T22:49:07.150-07:00Are you a Corporate Maniac?Leadership Coach <a href="www.johnmmckee.com/">John M McKee</a> talks about "<a href="http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=1672&tag=nl.e106">Five warning signs of becoming a corporate maniac</a>" in his latest blog post. <div><br /></div><div>According to him, possible impacts of having a workaholic corporate maniac as a boss are:</div><div><div><ul><li>(S)he may become dysfunctional, making bad decisions and negatively impacting the entire organization. </li><li>Additionally, the leader may create a sick culture. </li><li>When you step into one of those environments, there’s a real flat feeling. </li><li>Very little creativity occurs and workers don’t interact positively in many cases.</li></ul><div>Are you on verge of becoming one these corporate maniacs? Checkout the warning signs <a href="http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=1672&tag=nl.e106">here</a>.</div></div></div>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-30918438490395157082009-04-20T21:21:00.000-07:002009-04-20T21:26:44.712-07:00The Power of IdeasSome bloggers (including yours truly) from Delhi have been invited for the coverage of the 2nd phase of “The Power of Ideas’ programme from The Economic Times.<br /><br />This programme is an initiative to encourage anyone and everyone with an idea, to realize his or her entrepreneurial dream.<br /><br />In the successful FIRST phase, an overwhelming 11, 000+ entries were received. Now, in phase 2, The Elevator Pitch, each short-listed candidate gets to pitch his idea directly to potential investors over the phone.<br /><br />To prepare the candidates for this phase, a Mentoring Session has been scheduled where the participants are invited to meet experts and entrepreneurs.<br /><br />The details for the event are as below:<br /><br />* Date & time : April 21, 2009 4:30 PM onwards<br />* Venue : Kamani Auditorium No.1, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110001Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-41783323806201714542008-10-15T09:02:00.000-07:002008-10-21T10:12:32.822-07:00Accelerated UrgencyPleasures lull us.<br /><br />Routines engulf us.<br /><br />Crises consume us.<br /><br />Sufferings suppress us.<br /><br />Whether in comfort or in chaos, life of individuals and organizations run on an 'autopilot system' based of a series of HIDDEN assumptions (like characters in the movie - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix">The Matrix</a>).<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Is there anything worse?</span><br /><br />Well, yes! And, that is - Running on an 'autopilot system' based on a series of assumptions that you clearly KNOW to be false, BUT you do not have the time to TAKE NECESSARY ACTION.<br /><br />You are so busy driving your car that you do not have time to stop for fuel. How long will that car run?<br /><br />In the movie (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix">The Matrix</a>), the protagonist takes a RED PILL to know the truth (and abruptly wakes up in a pod, with his body connected by wires to a tower...).<br /><br />You do not have that option.<br /><br />So, how to break your zombie-like (self-)hypnotized state (in whichever aspect your life or work, you are stuck in undesirable patterns)?<br /><br />The classic Time Management Grid tells us that we spend our time in four ways:<br /><ol><li>Firefighting (Crisis Management)<br /></li><li>Creating Quality (Creation)<br /></li><li>Getting Distracted (Interruptions)<br /></li><li>Wasting (Trivia)<br /></li></ol>Most of the time is spent in Quadrants 1,3 & 4, which takes us away from our vision and mission.<br /><br />Quadrant 2 times are rare. Where is the time for creating Quality of life?<br /><br />How to break free from this bounded entity (which thrives in Quadrants 1,3 & 4 due to fear and short-sightedness)?<br /><br />Heidegger says "any ontological interpretation which sets itself the goal of EXHIBITING the phenomena in their primordiality should CAPTURE the being of of this entity".<br /><br />So, the BEING needs to be transformed.<br /><br />How?<br /><br />Heidegger continues "by doing violence [Gewaltsamkeit], whether to the claims of the everyday interpretation, or to its complacency and its tranquilized obviousness".<br /><br />And, how do we continuously CAUSE this violence?<br /><br />There are many ways, depending on what has lulled or suppressed or engulfed or consumed you.<br /><br />One way is to bring in "Accelerated Urgency" every day.<br /><br />John Kotter <a href="http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/kotter/2008/09/needed-a-true-sense-of-urgency.html">says</a>:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">The real solution to the complacency problem is a true sense of urgency. This set of thoughts, feelings, and actions is never associated with an endless list of exhausting activities. It has nothing to do with anxious running from meeting to meeting. It's not supported by an adrenalin rush that cannot be sustained over time.<br /><br />True urgency focuses on <span style="font-weight: bold;">critical issues</span>, not agendas overstuffed with the important and the trivial. True urgency is driven by <span style="font-weight: bold;">a deep determination to win</span>, not anxiety about losing. With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish <span style="font-weight: bold;">something important each day</span>, never leaving yourself with a heart-attack-producing task of running one thousand miles in the last week of the race.<br /></blockquote>He <a href="http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5938.html">recommends</a>:<br /><ul><li>Use crises as potential opportunities</li><li>Crises do not automatically reduce complacency<br /></li><li>To use a crisis to reduce complacency, make sure it is visible, unambiguous, related to real business problems... be exceptionally proactive in assessing how people will react, in developing specific plans for action, and in implementing the plans swiftly.</li><li>Plans and actions should always focus on others' hearts as much or more than their minds. Behaving with passion, conviction, optimism, urgency, and a steely determination will trump an analytically brilliant memo every time.</li><li>If urgency is low, never patiently wait for a crisis (which may never come) to solve your problems. Bring the outside in. Act with urgency every day.</li></ul>This is very different from REACTING to urgent situations everyday. Take a simple quiz <a href="http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/self-care/urgencyindex/">here</a> to determine your "reactive" <a href="http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/self-care/urgencyindex/">Urgency Index</a>.<br /><br />"Accelerated Urgency" expands your Quadrant 2 - Important but not urgent ACTIVITIES: Self-Development, Relationship building, Envisioning your future, Preparation/Planning/Organizing, Exercise/Recreation.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Ready to press the accelerator?</span>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-33545928675627432008-09-18T10:17:00.000-07:002008-09-18T10:37:41.067-07:00Be-Do-Have or Be-Have-Do?Many Gurus talk about Be-Do-Have and Be-Have-Do paradigms to inspire people to move away from what most people on this earth follow :Do-Have-Be (When I DO those things to get the results I desire then I will HAVE something which would allow me to BE happy - it is like a dog trying to catch its tail).<br /><br />How do you live your life?<br /><br />Be-Have-Do may be looked like this:<br /><br />BE Your Highest Vision Now<br /> HAVE All Your Goals in your mind clearly articulated<br /> DO - (With abouve two taken care of - life becomes) EFFORTLESS FLOW!<br /><br />A slight variation is BE - DO - HAVE principle used by <a href="http://myvisionmymission.com/">MyVisionMyMission.com</a>, which provides you with a way to plan your life so that you can achieve your life purpose :<br /><br />-Define and refine your life purpose<br /><br />-Realize your life purpose<br /><br />-What you will have as a result of your life purpose<br /><br />You can expand this to:<br /><br /> * My Day Plan - A reminder of the things that you DO every day<br /> * My Journal - A personal Journal and measurement tool for your evolution<br /> * Shared Questions - What do you need to know to achieve your Life Purpose?<br /> * Shared Stories - Share your success stories and read stories from others<br /> * Shared Missions - Share your Life Mission and get and give feedback<br /><br />Another great site to LIST YOUR GOALS and, optionally, share them and get (and give) cheers and support is <a href="http://www.43things.com/">43things.com</a>.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-10560111574888382142008-08-05T06:03:00.000-07:002008-08-05T06:17:35.475-07:00The "So, What?" technique of PitchingThe famous Lawyer joke goes like this:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Question: How can you tell if a lawyer is lying?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Answer: His lips are moving.</span><br /><br />In his book "The Art of The Start", <a href="http://www.guykawasaki.com/">Guy Kawasaki</a> does a spoof on this one for entrepreneurs:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Question: How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching?</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">Answer: His lips are moving.</span><br /><br />Guy shares a story about Bill Joos, who, during his career at IBM, was trained to imagine there was a little man sitting on his shoulder during presentations. Everytime Bill said something, the little man would whisper, "So What?" to him.<br /><br />Guy suggests that every entrepreneur should carry this little man and listen to him. He further recommends : <span style="font-style: italic;">After you answer the question, follow with the two most powerful words in a pitch "For Instance..." and then discuss a real-world use or scenario of a feature of your product or service.</span><br /><br />Now, if you say, "So What?" then Guy's answer is "<span style="font-style: italic;">The significance of what you are saying is not always self-evident, let alone shocking and awe-inspiring</span>".<br /><br />So What?<br /><br />So, keep revising you pitch till you develop a pitch that is shocking or awe-inspiring!Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-7703666593678758532008-05-30T13:06:00.000-07:002008-05-30T14:15:01.496-07:00The Freedom to Perform<p>Artists love the word "performance", and so do sports champions!</p><br /><p>However, whisper the word "performance" among a group of employees and you are sure to find yourself in a heated debate. Many employees are not comfortable with the word "performance". A questioner <a href="http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/Origin-word-Performance-1.htm">writes</a> in pain, "I always thought the word 'service' should be used to exemplify the voluntary intentions of a worker to choose in helping get tasks accomplished. Performance always seems to knock a worker down a notch, and is used to control people in my opinion."</p><br /><p>Etymology expert <a href="http://www.allexperts.com/ep/1474-5643/Etymology-Meaning-Words/Carol-Pozefsky.htm">Carol Pozefsky</a> <a href="http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/Origin-word-Performance-1.htm">answers </a>with empathy:</p><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">The verb 'parfourmen' meaning to do, to carry out or to render, first appears in English in about 1300. It's seen again some seventy years later as 'performen', borrowed from the Old French 'parfornir'. The French meaning was much the same as the English, to do, or to carry out. The noun performance crops up in the early 1500's meaning ,simply, a thing performed. It's not until 1709 that we encounter the word performance in the sense of a public exhibition or entertainment. It appears in an article by Steele in the Tatler. As it is currently used, the word performance, as least to me, calls to mind a performing seal, or a 7 year old tap dancer. </span></blockquote><br /><p>Many resist being treated like a performing "machine", but at the other end, we have artists and sportspersons taking pride in being "Great Performers".</p><br /><p>The questioner (mentioned above) seems confused, but he his on the right track when talks about "volunary intentions". The more FREE you are in your job, the more you "volunteer" towards accomplishments. No wonder, Peak Performers are associated with words like "proactive", "initiative", and "ownership". </p><br /><p>Employers who know this have the "key" to enable more peak performers. Katzenbach, in his book "Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees", starts off with his first meeting with Steve Messana, senior vice president of Human Resources at The Home Depot, who captures the power of frontline commitment by his statement: </p><blockquote>We encourage all of our people to come up with their own ideas to capture the customer's attention, and to try them out—there's no need for approval here. Sure, we get some lousy ideas along the way that we would rather not have had; but that's the price we are willing to pay for the widespread <strong>individual initiative</strong> that makes this place unique.</blockquote><br /><p>Dr. André A. de Waal conducted a comprehensive study on "The Characteristics of High Performance Organization". The study says that the first neccessary characteristic for a High Performing organizational "culture" is: </p><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">Empower people and give them FREEDOM to decide and act.</span></blockquote><p>Of course, this needs to be backed with a strategy to "define a strong vision that excites and challenges" (strategy characteristic #1 in the study) and "design a good and fair reward and incentive structure" (process characteristic #1).</p><p><span style="font-size:180%;"><br />So, how free are people in your organization?</span></p>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-34742224001019900702008-04-03T06:45:00.000-07:002008-04-03T07:21:05.936-07:00Your expertise is not what you do !Someone in my Linkedin network asked me this question<br /><br />when i ask my questions, i do not seek answers<br />instead i seek to expand awareness, both with myself and with other people<br />i enjoy the responses, not only one by one, but as a flow, a wave of group thought<br />when too many people respond in one way, the next person will choose a different angle. in this way, i experience the law of large numbers - i do not know who will take the position of expressing the opposite of what has been said before, i only know that someone will stand up to defend the other side<br />so this is about my reasons to ask questions on linkedin<br /><br />about niche<br />i find that by asking questions, i remodel my brain neurology. my goal is to have more fun in life today than i had yesterday. fun means i dont know how to have fun, i dont know what fun is, i am just having fun without really knowing what fun is.<br />i hope this makes sense<br /><br />when i remodel my brain neurology, by adapting a new belief for a while to see if believing something will bring me new experiences, and then dropping the belief in order to make room for a new belief, and so on ... so when i remodel my brain neurology, i in fact reshape the "pink glasses" through which i see the world<br /><br />i dont believe there is such a thing as a niche. your expertise is not what you do, your expertise is the way you look at the world. and this is a totally unique way, that took you your whole unique life to develop. you see, the more proud you are about your uniqueness, and the more you agree with the fact that this vision is found nowhere else in the world but within you, the less you feel you have to do. At the same time, you start to realize how important it is to further develop this totally unique vision into something even more concentrated than it was before.<br /><br />the exchange office between unique vision and value creation (money) becomes thus independent of what you do. consider your view like a book you wrote - people want to read your book, then they come to you and ask you : "look, i found something in your book, now i want you to see my world with your eyes and tell me what you see." so the true value is in your unique vision, the vision that helps someone else to see yet another aspect of their own world.<br /><br />best regards, Ron<br /><a href="http://www.maakjegeenzorgen.nl"><img src="http://www.ecademytwente.nl/images/RonaldWopereis.jpg" /></a>woepwoephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12544800818265746349noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-86567411309343197862008-03-08T15:31:00.000-08:002008-03-08T15:43:26.967-08:00Thank God It's Monday!<span style="font-weight: bold;">More often than not, when a large CHANGE is planned in an organization, there is an exodus of people!</span><br /><br />"During Organizational Change (read downsizing, re-engineering, merger, and so on)", Kenneth Cloke and Goldsmith asked, "<span style="font-style: italic;">Why is the <span style="font-weight: bold;">human side</span> of the change process THE LAST ELEMENT... thought out</span>?<br /><br />And, they came up with 14 Values "We Need to Humanize the Way We Work" in their book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thank-God-Its-Monday-Humanize/dp/0786310960">Thank God It's Monday</a>!<br /><br />They believe that these fourteen values will humanize organizations, empower workers, reduce conflict and increase employee satisfaction. A snapshot:<br /><ol><li>INCLUSION - involve everyone in the process</li><li>COLLABORATION - work together for consensus, not compromise</li><li>TEAMS and NETWORKS - small work teams</li><li>VISION - toward something better and worthwhile</li><li>CELEBRATION of DIVERSITY - diversity valued as a source of richness, vitality and strength</li><li>PROCESS AWARENESS - the value of process (listening, ability to work with others, ...) more then technical ability</li><li>OPEN and HONEST COMMUNICATION - and how destructive poor information sharing can be to an organization's health</li><li>RISK TAKING- and the need to trust those we work with</li><li>INDIVIDUAL and TEAM OWNERSHIP of RESULTS</li><li>PARADOXICAL PROBLEM SOLVING - willingness to solve problems with outside the box solutions that are not necessarily consistent with popular notions of the problem</li><li>EVERYONE is a LEADER - shift from a leader to everyone playing a role in decision making</li><li>PERSONAL GROWTH SATISFACTION - seek to make work personally and emotionally rewarding for employees</li><li>SEE CONFLICT as an OPPORTUNITY - the positive value of conflict</li><li>EMBRACE CHANGE</li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;">Whether or not you are embroiled in a CHANGE, it could be good idea to send this list to your CEO!</span>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-33594665115503378722008-02-09T11:51:00.000-08:002008-02-09T12:05:07.482-08:00Toughest Business Questions!Jack & Suzy Welch traveled all over the world for three years and spoke to hundreds of thousands of people about their work, career, and life challenges।<br /><br />They wanted to create a treatise and a how-to manual on fundamental business principles. They went on to publish a book called "<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060753948/Winning/index.aspx">Winning</a>" in April 2005 to "pretty much wrap up what had felt like a great, extended conversation".<br /><br />However, the authors soon found out that the response to the book was - "just the opposite!". During their book tour across various business schools and business groups, people started throwing "Hey, wait a minute, what about_____" kind of questions.<br /><br />For example, people agree with Winning's message that candor makes business (and life) immensely better, but wondered how can it be made to work in situations like dealing with very old seniors or with some of the polite cultures of Asia.<br /><br />Out of the several thousand questions they encountered, they chose 74 questions in their next book - "<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061241499/Winning_The_Answers/index.aspx">Winning - The Answers</a>": Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today!<br /><br />A sampler: How to turn a company into a "preferred employer"?<br /><br />Their take:<br /><br />1. Demonstrate a real commitment to continuous learning.<br />2. Be a Meritocracy - Rigorous appraisals and pay/promotion linked to performance.<br />3. Allow people to take risks - celebrate those who do and don't shoot those who fail trying.<br />4. Be diverse and global in outlook and environmentally sensitive.<br />5. Tight hiring standards.<br />6. Grow and be profitable.<br /><br />Another one: Does executive coaching work?<br /><br />Their take:<br />Generally, yes, depending on the quality of the coach. Good executive coaches can look you in the eye and tell you what no else will, especially if you are the boss. The challenge for you is to listen and the ultimate value of executive coaching depends on your ability to receive it.<br /><br />Read about "Taking on China . . . and Everyone Else" in an <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780061241499&z=y">excerpt</a>.<br /><br />This time, the authors conclude:<br /><br />"Like life, the conversation about work will go on and on. It has to. Economies rise and fall. Competitive dynamics never stop changing. Careers move zig and zag. And so, questions will keep coming. We look forward to listening to them all".Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-27610155350338348412007-12-06T01:07:00.000-08:002007-12-06T01:13:48.736-08:00Rules For Startup Success<a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/05/loic-le-meurs-ten-rules-for-startup-success/">Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success</a><br /><br />Some rules for startup success: <ol><li>Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea............<span style="font-weight: bold;">Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible.</span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Share your idea</span>.......Meet and talk to your competitors.</li><li> Build a community.........<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Make sure people hear about you</span>.</li><li> Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their <span style="font-weight: bold;">feedback</span>.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Gather a great team</span>. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.</li><li>Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.</li><li>Don’t spend time on market research. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Launch test versions as early as possible</span>. Keep improving the product in the open.</li><li>Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.</li><li>Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.</li><li>Don’t focus on getting rich. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Focus on your users</span>. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.</li></ol>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-43787122865289698782007-11-29T05:39:00.000-08:002007-11-29T06:06:31.139-08:00Not invented here?Is the "competitive" advantage of "Innovation" as an intellectual property getting diluted?<br /><br />In <a href="http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5760.html">Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage</a>, Harvard Business School professor Alan MacCormack and his research collaborators interviewed some 100 managers from 20 firms to gather best practices of the companies that do collaborative innovation correctly.<br /><br />They discovered that COLLABORATION is becoming a key driver due to product complexity, availability of a low-cost but highly skilled labor pool, and advances in development tools.<br /><br />Further, collaboration enables shorter development lead times, increasing capacity, and AN ACCESS to skills, capabilities, and intellectual property that a firm does not possess internally.<br /><br />Of course, this brings unique challenges:<br /><br />In a case study, more than 200 people from one firm and its three partners were involved in developing software for a new system-on-a-chip design. Initially, all team members had access to the firm’s entire code repository, including much code unrelated to their own work. Then they realized the risk of exposing a thousand person-years of code and changed the system to expose only the IP necessary for each partner to meet its goals.<br /><br />The 23-page <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-079.pdf">Full Working Paper Text</a> can be downloaded from http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-079.pdf.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1163184019801489492006-11-10T10:27:00.000-08:002006-11-10T10:40:19.836-08:00Re:An Uneducated of the title of this BlogThanks to Himanshu for a great post!<br /><br />To start with, I loved his comment:<br /><br /> <span style="font-size:85%;">"So when I am hit with the words - sustained peak performance - I am truly and properly hit"!<br /> </span><br />Absolutely delicious sense of humor!<br /><br />But then he went ahead and gave us some profound advice on “increasing total performance”: <strong>Synchronize Recruitment – Have Vision – Operational Excellence</strong> and capping it up with <strong>Innovation</strong>!<br /><br />Slightly before that he did in bring an element of <em>tragedy</em>:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">“And this way, the fulcrum of the whole setup, the individual is broken. And the only reason it is broken is because of a lack synchronization between elements.”</span><br /><br />I think this is absolutely fabulous – starting with <em>Humor</em>, suddenly “peaking” with <em>Tragedy</em> and finally <u>hitting the nail on the head</u> with profound <em>Full Blown Expression</em> on nuts and bolts of enhancing performance! With the overall theme of an “Uneducated Take”, I think this is exemplary expression, beautifully entwined with Dramatics!<br /><br />I love this!<br /><br />Of course, I have to fulfill my duty and deal with the apparent “anti-individual” elements in the word “Performance”.<br /><br />So, for the record, “performance”, especially “peak performance”, defeats its purpose if there is a COMPULSION about it.<br /><br />For Peak Performance to work, ABSOLUTE CHOICE is needed, with COMPLETE FREEDOM!<br /><br />Now, before this is misunderstood, let me clarify that CONSTRAINTS are likely to be there in a corporate set-up. But, the individual has to simply drop those constraints (in his mind, at least, to start with) and TRANSCEND the environment.<br /><br />A Peak Performer CHOOSES to be COMPLETELY FOCUSSED on an “engagement” of his choice irrespective of circumstances. The limitations imposed by the environment including the team and organization does not matter (sports like soccer and cricket are "easy" illustrations of peak performing individuals).<br /><br />Look back and see your “best performances” – you might have had amazing successes working under “project deadlines” but probably <em>the most exotic performances were those that “produced” maximum output EFFORTLESSLY</em>! More than “doing” anything, you were in a FLOW!<br /><br />Allow me to quote Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience) who once described flow as:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”<br /></span>Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1161699188888668452006-10-24T06:43:00.000-07:002006-10-30T03:47:23.643-08:00An Uneducated of the title of this Blog<strong>Sustained Peak Performance for Individuals, Teams and organizations!</strong><br /><br />Let us start our analysis from the middle of the sentence. At the centre of it all is an individual, me. Poor I, unfortunately, think of myself as an individual and not a part of asynchronizedd whole. So when I am hit with the words - <strong><em>sustained peak performance</em></strong> - I am truly and properly hit. What does sustained mean? Isn't it only human to take breaks? What does peak mean? If I am running at my maximum, I'll burn out in a day and my total output will be much lesser than if I had gone slow and continued to work for years. And what does performance mean? Is it doing my job? Something more than that? What about the reduction in my home performance because of my increase in office performance? Or the reduction in my health performance because of my effort to keep up my office and home performance? Oh! I think I am just a good for nothing, cribbing about these things. Everyone else seems to be taking up this slogan and being really upbeat about it. There must be something wrong with me.<br /><br />And this way, the fulcrum of the whole setup, the individual is broken. And the only reason it is broken is because of a lack synchronization between elements.<br /><br />Let us be very clear about this. None of the words of <strong><em>Sustained Peak Performance</em></strong> mean anything by themselves. The whole idea is maximize the overall output. And that cannot be achieved by achieving the local optima. Let us take the example of a woodcutter. The woodcutter's peak speed is 10 trees in a day. So do we want him to cut trees at that rate? No, because the day he cuts 12 trees, he falls sick for next two days and does not cut any, so we basically get 12 trees in 3 days, or 4 trees per day. Plus we have to pay for his medical expenses. So should we be happy with the 6 trees that he is cutting per day, every day? Again a No. Because then we are not getting the best out of our resource. There are several things we can do, and most of the more educated articles on this blog will detail out these aspect in much clearer terms. But here are some uneducated thoughts.<br /><br />First, form a team. Get some more woodcutters and form a plan for them to work together in a coordinated fashion. The first thing that will happen - the overall unpredictability of the team will go down. One woodcutter falling sick will not stop the work. The actions that we have taken here are<em> team formation</em> and <em>team coordination</em>. Then, we can find individual <em>motivational</em> strategies. Every individual woodcutter (or at least some of them) would stretch themselves just a bit, cutting 7 trees a day. We can find team motivation strategies, where two woodcutters cutting trees while talking to each other will not get tired will they cut 8 trees a day. We can get very individual to work at his peak for three quarters of a day and cut 9 trees, and then rest for the rest of the day and proper <em>planning</em> and scheduling of the work will mean that one person or the other will be working throughout the day.<br /><br />Several ways to increase the total performance of the individual and the team, but not enough. Cutting a few trees with a team of woodcutters will not make a succesful organization. For one, organization is much bigger than one team. For my wood-cuting organization to perform at its peak, for example,<em>synchronization</em> between its recruitment and operations departments have to be perfect for the right amount of people to be available when the work starts every morning.<br /><br />More importantly, organizations needs to have a <strong><em>Vision. </em></strong>An Organization needs to know very clearly the purpose of its existence, and the direction it wishes to take to achieve that purpose. Then it needs to be good at what it is doing, it needs to do all the right things and in the right ways. In other words, it needs <strong><em>Operational Excellence</em></strong>. All this we have described. But is that enough? No! What we need to top it all is to find new ways of enabling each woodcutter to cut more trees per day, we need to find new ways for the groups of woodcutters to work better together, we need to find new woods to cut and new people to buy those woods. In Jargon terms, we need <strong><em>Innovation</em></strong>, at individual, team and organizational levels.<br /><br />These are just some of the things that come to this illiterate mind. The other posts in this blog attempt to give us better ideas on how to achieve all this.<br /><br />There's another way in which I can express what I want here. In my organization, what I want is that every individual woodcutter to cut the maximum number of trees that he can cut every day, I want every team to boost every individual's performance and to collectively deliver more than the total on individuals. In the end, I want all the teams to coordinate and assist with each other to enable smooth running of every unit. And I want to use every means possible to keep on increasing the output of each individual, each team and the organization. Last but not the least, I want my organization to continue to operate at its best for ever, and for that, I want to understand the role of my organization in the society and how I can fit without causing a disturbance which negatively impacts either an individual, a team or an organization.<br /><br />Lets see how this blog gives us pointers to these things.<br /><br />In the end, a small note. <strong>Hope all this makes sense.</strong>CoolMoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03936608836995905530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1159379845308295302006-09-27T10:38:00.000-07:002006-09-29T04:07:36.866-07:00Scaling up for Global Excellence - 2Contd. from previous post:<br /><br />Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, was the curiousity factor in the group as he usually does not attend such sessions. He turned-up at 8AM much before everyone else. He was wearing his factory uniform (at the Taj Palace Hotel!). When someone asked, he said, "I don't have a suit!".<br /><br />When his turn came to present, he said, "'I shall not give any business projections or discuss management principles. I will talk about how we transformed our company by strengthening the firm from inside".<br /><br />His presentation was titled "Inside Out" and he started with the quote:<br /><br />Those who look OUTSIDE dream,<br />Those who look INSIDE awaken.<br />~Carl Jung<br /><br />He went on to share how Professor S Yamaguchi guided him and his firm in the early 1990s. An interesting quote from the professor was:<br /><br />Business starts when the customer say NO!<br /><br />Professor S Yamaguchi is a TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) expert.<br /><br />To deal with Bajaj Auto's "problems" at that point of time, they simply followed Yamaguchi's advice of "Do! Do! Do!" and from 1990-1995 they "Did what was Doable".<br /><br />From 1995 onwards they did "What was UNEXPECTED" and unleashed the "Pulsar" by the turn of the century!<br /><br />To those who are new to TPM, it has some similarities with Total Quality Management (TQM) and both share tools like empowerment, benchmarking and documentation.<br /><br />TPM programs are aimed at maximizing production effectiveness by engaging people at all organizational levels and functions and simultaneously increasing employee morale and job satisfaction.<br /><br />Equipment effectiveness is maximized by minimising unplanned stoppages. Maintenance is carried out to a pre-planned schedule, rather than waiting for the equipment to break down.<br /><br />It targets zero downtime of machinery/equipment, zero defects and zero accidents by the pro-active identification of potential problems.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1157739909393412832006-09-08T11:11:00.000-07:002006-09-27T11:08:39.430-07:00Scaling up for Global Excellence - 1<strong>Theme</strong>: Scaling up for Global Excellence<br /><br /><strong>Location</strong>: September 8, 2006,Taj Palace Hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi<br /><br /><strong>Presentations</strong>: By Sunil Bharti Mittal (Group MD, Bharti Enterprises), Rajiv Bajaj (MD, Bajaj Auto) and Anant Talaulicar (MD, Tata Cummins and CMD, Cummins India Ltd.).<br /><br /><strong>Event</strong>: 46th Annual Session of the ACMA (Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India)<br /><br /><strong>Kick</strong>-<strong>Off</strong>: A K Taneja, President, ACMA kicked-off (there was no football, however) the proceedings with some "India Shining" statistics (like 8% growth, demographic profile of 50%+ below 25 years of age, 300,000+ engineers being churned out, etc) and saw huge potential for growth in the Automotive industry - we have only about 7 passenger vehicles per THOUSAND persons, one of the LOWEST in the world, even lower than Thailand and Pakistan.<br /><br />Due to severe cost pressure, the global OEMs and large tier 1 players in USA, Europe, etc are increasingly looking at emerging economies such as Brazil, East Europe, ASEAN, China and India for sourcing of cost competitive components. India is one of the most attractive destinations and the industry is looking at a growth rate of 20-30% per year.<br /><br />So, to reach about USD 40-50 billion by 2015, Automotive Component Manufacturers in India face the challenges of scaling up. What are some of the challenges?<br /><br />1. The challenge of <strong>attracting</strong> and <strong>retaining</strong> talent. Skilled manpower is the OXYGEN of this industry and Talent Transformation is the goal!<br /><br />2. The challenge of <strong>managing</strong> Partnerships and Alliances. Collaboration! Collaboration! Collaboration!<br /><br />3. The challenge of <strong>Implementation</strong>. Relentless flawless execution! Systems, Procedures, and Internal Processes!<br /><br />4. The challenge of <strong>Free</strong> <strong>Trade</strong> Agreements. Trade/Compete with China!<br /><br />So, what "mantras" did señors Sunil Bharti Mittal , Rajiv Bajaj and Anant Talaulicar throw back at the Automotive Component Manufacturers? Watch the space.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1150329166005965752006-06-14T16:50:00.000-07:002006-06-14T16:55:12.450-07:00Continuous Unlearning and Re-invention<a href="http://www.insead.edu/discover_INSEAD/publications/intuition_to_institution.htm">"From Intuition to Institution"</a>, a book on the history of INSEAD (campuses in Singapore and France), labels its journey over four decades as a tale of <strong>continual re-invention</strong>.<br /><br />Starting from 1957 as an entrepreneurial venture with modest academic credentials it now ranks itself with the best business schools and has achieved this without university or government support. This journey has required a constant balancing act between contradictory challenges that is pervasive in modern organizations: between continuity and change, between strategic planning and opportunism, between ambitions and financial constraints, between short term gain and long term investment, and so on.<br /><br />“Continual Re-invention” is a powerful theme, which successful organizations “continually” adopt, yet it is easier said than done. Re-invention requires a re-look at the context, re-definition of mission and vision and an altogether different perspective to run and compete. One of measures of success in today’s world is NOT on “how much do you know” but “how quickly can you learn”. So, “Continuous Learning” becomes a necessary part and with paradigms frequently turning up-side down, it is smarter to be ready for “Continuous Unlearning”.<br /><br />For example, one of the paradigm shifts in software product development is the Agile methodology: classic software development identifies “accurate requirement specifications” as one of the critical measures of success, and now the Agile methodology says “do not wait for requirements to be complete, start coding because a working software is the primary measure of progress”. Although Agile is used by many world-class software vendors, it is still not universally accepted and Agile remains a hotly debated topic. So, "Upside-down" paradigm shifts are difficult to "sell" and thus, “Collaborative Unlearning”, which is absolutely necessary to foster innovation in organizations, is a challenge which is difficult to address.<br /><br />In a Roffey Park's research report (also included in “Successful Innovation: How to Encourage and Shape Profitable Ideas” by Michel Syrett and Jean Lammiman), the challenge of innovation was seen to be that not enough of the ideas on the ground were picked up and properly exploited. Rather these ideas are like 'diamonds in the dust' - hidden beneath the surface unless managers at all levels search them out, recognize their value and - to take the analogy further - arrange to have them expertly cut and polished. The research recommends five key roles as necessary to successful idea development:<br /><br />1. Spark (someone who ‘sparks’ the idea, original thinker);<br />2. Sponsor (someone who promotes the idea and keeps it “live”);<br />3. Shaper (someone who makes the idea “real” by finding on practical ways to implement the idea);<br />4. Sounding board (Outside expert, whose objectivity and broader knowledge helps validate the idea).<br />5. Specialist (someone, whose specialist skills help shape the ideas towards a specific implementation.)<br /><br />Now, that looks like a grounded process on which Continuous Innovations can be fostered!Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1149675535437811562006-06-07T03:16:00.000-07:002007-12-24T04:22:59.457-08:00Enlightened Organizations!Enlightened Organizations!<br /><br />Tom Morris, in his book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805052534?v=glance">If Aristotle Ran General Motors</a>", has presented a case for "a new ethics in business and for a workplace where openness and Integrity are the rule rather than the exception".<br /><br />He goes further and shows that "any company that is serious about attaining true excellence must adhere to four timeless virtues first identified by Aristotle more than two thousand years ago: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity".<br /><br />Enlightened Organizations! Anyone?Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1149512347292042272006-06-05T05:56:00.000-07:002007-12-24T04:19:36.029-08:00Institutionalizing Innovation – A Paradox?Institutionalizing Innovation – A Paradox?<br /><br />Innovation involves “Out-of-Box” thinking and institutionalizing innovation is a contradiction of sorts. How does one organize creativity in “process-perfect” (read Quality certified) organizations, inevitable conflict-ridden workplaces and a dynamically changing chaotic market-place?<br /><br />A widely-held belief is that Creativity is forte of lonely geniuses and that it is “in-born”. Peter Drucker is one of the pioneers who said that innovation could presented as a discipline, capable of being learned and capable of being practiced. He states in his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”:<br /><br /><em>Systematic innovation consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation.<br /></em><br />The challenge in organizations is to foster un-hindered creativity across all levels of organization and yet have a structure in place to channel the ideas systematically into usefulness.<br /><br />Innovation is the introduction of new ideas which are useful. In the marketplace, innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas and, hence, successful commercialization is the ultimate goal. Innovation always brings a significant difference to the situation at hand and creating or adding “value” is an essential element.<br /><br />Organizational innovation initiatives are usually aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage. Thus, the application of new ideas could (a) result in an improvement in an existing product, service or process and/or (b) result in an entirely new product, service or process.<br /><br />The bigger challenge is to be ready for the next "unknown" external threat to business. It is not enough for organizations attempt to anticipate the next “Disruptive Innovation” in the market (and grope in the dark, waiting to get hit). Organizations should themselves take initiative to unleash the next series of “Disruptive Technologies” into the market.<br /><br />Finally, in the commercialization stage, the trap to avoid is the “Early Mover” principle. A highly successful Innovation may not equate to Commercial Success when the “Imitators” rush in at “The Right Moment” in the market with “deep pocket” marketing and distribution.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1147601898782494942006-05-14T03:11:00.000-07:002007-12-24T04:20:37.989-08:00Ideation, Idea Databases and Idea Management<strong>Ideation, Idea Databases and Idea Management</strong><br />Various thought methods are available to us to go beyond our current levels of thinking and the sum total wisdom being used consciously (or subconsciously) at a given moment. The principles of Lateral Thinking allow us to set the context for a free (un-hindered) flow of ideas to the problem at hand.<br /><br />With this “free” context, we can easily set-up a system to continuously build a haystack of ideas. This process of forming and relating ideas is called IDEATION and it usually leads to an IDEA DATABASE for the specific problem at hand. And, of course, there are many “ready” databases on the internet. For example:<br /><br />www.creativitypool.com could be a starting place to browse for ideas and you could submit your own ideas and be rewarded for brilliant entries.<br /><br />www.trendwatching.com scans the globe for “the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas”. They rely on a network of 8,000+ spotters in more than 70 countries worldwide.<br /><br />With a large number of people working on the same problem, there arises the need to “institutionalize” systematic recording, sharing, and evaluation of ideas – the entire process is called “Idea Management”. Commercial Ideation tools like “Ideation Brainstorming” by Ideationtriz are available in the market.<br /><br />Another player is Imaginatik who are one of the pioneers of Idea Management “as a specialized application of Knowledge Management principles to harness the collective innovation potential of companies”. They use the idea of concept of “Idea Richness” - the extent to which an idea is described so that it is understandable to others, and avoids the need for most follow-on questions.<br /><br />The parameters of Idea Richness are - Understandability, Completeness (scope of problem covered and how detailed), Questioning (How much extra work?), and Longevity (How easy is it for some to recall the ideas after a long period of time?) and Intuitive Fit (How evident is the solution?).<br /><br />So much so for quality of ideas. What about quantity? How many is too many? The Economist estimated that an enterprise has to start with 3000 bright ideas if it has come up with 100 worthwhile projects, which in turn will be winnowed down to four development programs for new products.<br /><br />So, “Never say Never” whenever an “insert” operation is requested into an idea database!Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1147091886607279822006-05-08T05:28:00.000-07:002006-05-08T05:38:06.616-07:00On a mystical note:<br /><br />Say not, “I have found the truth,”<br />but rather, “I have found a truth.”<br />Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.”<br />Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”<br /> -Kahlil Gibran, The ProphetAmarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24237234.post-1147068359692353512006-05-07T23:00:00.000-07:002007-12-24T04:16:09.672-08:00Lateral ThinkingAlbert Einstein famously said that “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.<br /><br />So, what are tools available to us to go beyond our current levels of thinking and the sum total wisdom being used consciously (or subconsciously) at a given moment?<br /><br />One such tool ‘Lateral Thinking’ was pioneered in 1967 by Edward de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, physician, and writer. Bono said that the (usual) concept of LOGICAL thinking is SELECTION and this is brought about by the processes of ACCEPTANCE and REJECTION.<br /><br />Now, we can easily see that the mind's usual REJECTION of ideas based on already known knowledge and wisdom would most often limit a mind to move around endlessly in a very limited domain.<br /><br />The usual Logical Reasoning, it seems, has no access to “What the mind does not even know that it does not know”.<br /><br />Bono explains that the concept of LATERAL thinking is INSIGHT RESTRUCTURING and this is brought about through the REARRANGEMENT OF INFORMATION.<br /><br />REARRANGEMENT is the BASIS of LATERAL thinking and the mind is NOT trapped by its usual YES or NO to ideas.<br /><br />Instead of saying "Yes" or "No", Bono invites us to say "Po"! The term PO is derived from Provocative operation. The concept allows us to continue thinking forward to a new place in an unencumbered fashion where new ideas may be continually produced.<br /><br />So, as new ideas keep pouring in from diverse angles (in a typical brainstorming session) they are not evaluated immediately. Every idea is simply recorded without any judgments.<br /><br />Then the process of evaluating the transcripts of the Brainstorming session at a later meeting is the first access to “breakthrough” insights into the problem being considered.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13083939541763990683noreply@blogger.com1