What I wish I had known :: Lesson 2 :: Learn to Learn

Lesson 2 is all about learning.  Learning to do new things, behaving differently, breaking the shackles of theory, observing, experimenting, or just thinking and dreaming about how to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem.

In India, the chances are, that we learnt only what we were taught - the definitions, details, steps, examples. We were told what to do and we did it.  We were graded on how well we did what we were told to do.

I know that this sounds harsh and that there are many schools today that help people learn differently, but I am assuming that most of us were "taught".

Well, things are different in Corporate India. Yes, we are told what to do, and how to do it. Sometimes! But we are also expected to conceptualize, create, innovate, experiment, research, extrapolate, and observe from experts and implement our learning in our work environment. How do we make this transition?

We Need to Learn to Learn!

 

Forget: Corporate India is going to expect you to forget large parts of your education. You are going to have to unlearn what you have learnt to learn something new. You would have made many presentations with bells and whistles to draw and retain attention.  Well, we now want you to be more effective using staid corporate guidelines and styles. Forget what you have done in the past and relearn the tool, our way!

You are going to have to learn to forget how things were done, and done successfully, as business environments change at an alarming rate. Forgetting and starting from scratch, using first principles helps bring new solutions to newer problems.

Observe:  Think of how you learnt to drive.  The chances are that you learnt this by observing others' drive and the things that they cursed when driving.  Similarly, I was not taught how to make a dosa.  My mother told me that as a toddler, I would stand by her, and shrug my shoulders, moving them up and down, mimicking how the edges of dosa separate from the tawa, to tell her that the dosa was ready to be flipped over.  I learnt by watching my mother make countless dosas.

I learnt how to make presentations, use humor to diffuse a situation, to make an elevator speech, to be inclusive and many more things, by simply observing others.

Read:  Learn to learn by reading.  Read anything you want – fiction, fantasy, biography, crime; anything! Reading builds knowledge; it builds the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes; it broadens your general knowledge.  Reading has held me in good stead, when I need to find a common topic to make a customer comfortable, helped me empathize with others by putting myself in their shoes as I do when I read a book and become the protagonist.

Read diverse topics. Reading just work related stuff will make you one-dimensional. Truly, you never know when something you read will be useful. Just read. Devour what you can. Your brain will bring it to the forefront when you need it.

Experiment:  How many of you have watched one of the countless cooking reality shows and while you learn to make new dishes, have at the same time thought of tweaks that you believe will make the dish better? If you have actually tried these tweaks – you have experimented. Whatever the outcome – a full stomach or the dustbin, you have learnt something.  Revel in it. You will be able to repeat an experiment gone well or avoid a failure.

In the workplace, you are constantly looking for where to experiment and then doing the experiment. You will fail, and you will pay for that failure.  But you will also learn from the failure, and you will also succeed beyond your wildest dreams. There is no limit to experimentation.

Be Consistent: The best way to learn to learn, is to consistently learn something new. Learn a language, learn to dance, or to play an instrument, or to cook, or program your TV or to write. I have just learned to write a blog. Each time I learn something new I am building the muscles of my brain to do something new; I am shoring up experiences that I will be able to bank on at a later date.

“Doesn’t this take a lot of time?” you think. "I simply don't have the time!"

Not really. I do a lot of this learning subconsciously.  Just imagine how much better I would be if I consciously looked for learning opportunities, and just jumped into them without over-thinking! 

I learned very early in my career to update my resume every 6 months, not to look for another job, but to determine if I was learning new skills. I do that even today, 29 years later. I know when I am stagnating and when I am growing.

Unlearn, Learn, Re-Learn – Spend the Time

It’s worth much more than the minutes spent

What I wish I had known :: Lesson 1 :: Balance Sheets Are Not Made Everyday

I have been asked by student bodies, many times, to share what it is really like to work in Corporate India.  I have made the standard presentations on work culture, discipline, career management, etc. many times too.

Last year, I decided to do something different.  I decided to share with them, what I wish I had known about working when I joined the workforce in the mid-80s. These lessons, if I can call them that, may have helped me feel happier, make fewer mistakes, learn faster, or just revel more in the here and now. 

Lesson 1 : Balance Sheets Are Not Made Everyday

I believe, if I ask myself every day, whether what I have done or achieved was worth the effort and time spent, then I am sure to be disappointed. Working life, or for that matter, life, is not a balance sheet where all the numbers match up neatly at the end. There are days that I feel are a total waste of time, where I deliver nothing and do nothing useful.  There are also days when what I do is so absorbing and interesting, that I don't have time to eat or when my bladder is the only thing that tells me that it is time for a break.

 

Also, believe it or not, there is no such thing as Work-Life Balance. I say this for 2 reasons. 

 

Reason 1: I disagree with the semantics. "Work-Life Balance" implies that work is not life and life is not work. Work is life, life is work. What I want is to balance my personal and professional lives.  Lucky are those whose personal and professional lives are the same, but for most of us these are 2 distinct areas, with some overlap. The bigger the overlap the better it is.

 

Reason 2: At any given point of time everything cannot (and dare I say, should not) be balanced. Sometimes my personal life will need to take center stage - all my mind share, time, effort, focus, money; and sometimes my professional life will take center stage. That's just the way it is.

 

I have worked 18-hour days for many, many months, without weekends off, 'coz that is what was needed by the organization.  I did it without resentment.  I just put other things on hold.  I have also taken many weeks / months off to recover from illness, take a sabbatical because that is what I needed for me.

 

I have learnt to look at the bigger picture, view what I have achieved or missed from 30,000 feet.  The questions I have asked are:

• Over a period of time have I done what I  wanted to do?
• Have I learned and grown?
• Am I better as a professional and person today than I was 6 months ago?
• Have I met my personal goals?
• Have I created new goals for myself?
• Have I truly impacted the lives of friends, family, customers, partners, colleagues, and of course, myself? 

 

If the answer is "Yes" to even some of these questions, then I know I am on the right path.

  

Daily Stock Taking is Just a Waste of Time and Energy

Mobile Phone Etiquette - My Rules; Finally Written!

Source: http://blog.vodafone.co.uk

This is from a note I wrote on Facebook way back in 2009.  It seems to hold as good today as it did then. I have modified the rules as I see them, and have incorporated many friends' comments and suggestions.

So here are Sangeeta's Rules for Mobile Phone Users.  :-)

Avoid / Do Not 

1. Speak to people when you are in the toilet – they can hear every sound. Oh yes, they can! From the plop-plop of the big job to the sound of the little stream hitting the pond to the storm escaping from your intestinal constriction!
2. Use mobile phones when at a ceremony, religious or otherwise. It is an insult to the people there – not to mention God – if you believe in a God.
3. Speak or text when you are at a social / professional gathering such as a date, meeting, restaurant, etc. Your time on the phone tells people that they are not as important as the SMS that you got (which is probably a joke you've received and read before) or the call from someone whom you say you will call right back!!
4. Talk loudly when you cannot hear someone who has called you. If you cannot hear them, move to a quieter place or find a phone with better sound quality. The general public does not have to live thru your latest romance or adventure or anger or any of the other emotions you have. If you need to share – go visit a friend or psychiatrist.
5. Use caller tunes. How inappropriate is it for your friend to hear “Don’t Worry, Be happy” when they call to tell you that their pet died, or they just got laid off!!  
6. Use a cell phone when you are driving – you need both hands to turn the wheel, shift gears, make hand signals. Even if you have a hands free extension – do you really believe you can concentrate on traffic and pedestrians while you are negotiating a contract?
7. Take pictures / videos with your phone, just because it has the feature.  There is a reasonable expectation of privacy we all have - respect it! Ask permission.
8. Answer with a "who's this" or "Tell me". Your parents named you with high hopes, use your name with pride, state it whenever you get a call. 
9. Assume that you are the Prime Minister of the country and that you can call anyone late at night or early in the morning.  Also, people you call / message do not have to respond to you, even if you are their boss, maybe they can't or don't want to! Wait.

   

   Source: http://blog.vodafone.co.uk

   Just because someone has a mobile phone does not mean that they have to answer your call or respond to your SMS. This is not breathing people!  Wait to hear from them.

Do's

1. Put your phone on silent or switch it of completely when you are in a hospital, theater, or at any performance. In a hospital, people are worried and harried – do they really need to hear your ring tone? At an artistic performance, you insult performers who have put their hearts, minds, spirit and hard work to entertain you for an hour or so, and unless you are the national security chief or an emergency room doctor – you really do not need to be in touch with the world all the time.
2. Keep your ringing tone low. The entire bus / train / room does not have to know that you have a call.
3. State your name when answering a call so that your caller knows they’ve reached the right person. If you are answering someone else’s phone, at their request, please state that fact clearly when you pick up the call.  
4. Call when you need to; not when you want to pass the monkey onto someone else’s back. If something can wait till you meet someone the next day, or after a few hours, pray why do you need to talk to them and fill the pockets of the telecom company?
5. Tell a caller that you are with people who can hear your part of a conversation if you are in a public place.  The caller may like to call you when you are alone. Not all people like to discuss things in public and/or when strangers are present 
6. Respond to all calls that were ignored or missed at the earliest. Someone does want to connect with you, unless of course it is a pesky insurance / credit card sales person.
7. Pick up calls / messages from significant people in your life. Remember its not your clients who live with you, and will be there for you thru' thick and thin. There is really no excuse not to call parents, siblings, children, spouse. It is a great way to share good news, do it often. 

Do I want a Smart Phone?






Source: http://www.techcentral.co.za/binu-expands-into-africa

I am what one may call a later bloomer when it comes to mobile phones.  Something that you wouldn't expect from a person who worked in the IT / ITES industry. 

For some reason, I avoided owning a mobile phone for many, many years. I just did not want the additional encumbrance of an expensive piece of equipment. By all counts, I am quite the talker, but the thought that with a  mobile phone I could talk to people when I wanted, wherever I was, did not seem appealing.  Not that I hadn't spent hours in my teens, jammed between the wall and the fridge, chatting with my friends on our land line. Talking on a mobile phone just was not "comfortable".  I wanted to be seated, in one place.  Something has to be grounded when conversations move with a will of their own thru topics from the serious to the mundane, from gossip to reality in a second.

I acquired a mobile phone sometime in the late 90s or early 2000. I bought a Nokia phone in Singapore. In those days it was cheaper to by electronic equipment outside the country.  So why did I finally acquire a mobile phone? Well, I used to drive from Okhla (office) to Sheikh Sarai (home) late in the night, on a road that was ill lit and lonely, and my team thought it was not safe.  They threatened to buy me a phone for my birthday, if I did not buy one for myself.  Like any good manager, I couldn't have my team buy me an expensive gift, so I went and bought my first mobile phone.

From then till now, I have changed phones probably a 4 - 5 times.  I am now quite the mobile phone talker, chatting with people when I feel like it.  But in the time it has taken me to do this, people are watching movies, surfing the internet, winning multi player games on their phones. None of which I do. Phones now seem magically strapped to people's wrists. With them all the time, in use all the time.





Source: Coca-Cola Social Media Guard Campaign

I am now looking to change my mobile phone, and when asked what I want from the new phone, I say "I want to be able to make and receive calls". This leaves 99.9% of the people waiting for more, their expectant faces the only response to the silence that follows.

I really, truly, want a phone that I can use to make calls, that has good sound reproduction.  Oh, also one on which I can heck email, synchronize my contacts, calendar and to-do lists. Nothing more.

Stating this leads to long conversations on why I now need a smart phone.  To surf the internet, to watch movies and TV serials, to video chat, do internet banking, shop, listen to music, all while on the move (I am already getting motion sick hearing this).

So basically, to avoid all forms of human contact.

Mobile phones are not the be all and end all of our existence.  There was life before mobile phones.  Real life! A life where things worked, people had meaningful relationships, news was "breaking", movies seen, love expressed, & sadness shared.  We have a life now. One, it seems, within the constraints of our mobile phones. We were free then. Sometimes now, it feels like we are less free.  The mobile phone has become an electronic dog collar / handcuff, making us "available" 24x7 in case the Queen calls!

Oh for the good old days! Where I was in control of when and whom I wanted to speak with.

I want to have a phone free day and discover the pleasure of reading for hours, cooking, chatting, walking, sleeping, and/or just staring into space.

Let the planning begin, smart phone or not!

On Children's Day 14th Nov 2014

Each year on and after November 14th, India's Children's Day, the news is all about Jawaharlal Nehru. But is that really the significance of the day, is it only the blind celebration of a man whom we are told loved children, and of whose actions towards the betterment of the children of our country is not known.  Yes, of course, he was instrumental in setting up AIIMS and IITs, and yes, he was the first Prime Minister of the country, and yes, he was called Chacha.  But is there more?  If there is more that he has done for children then why have we not heard about it.

This children's day, I am thinking of all the children who do not have a roof over their heads, or who do not get a hot meal, who are sick, or abused, or have runaway.  And I ask, what am doing for children's day?  Am I going to do the usual? Post pictures of cute children, watch mutely while news channels talk about Jawaharlal Nehru? Am I going to do something different? Can I do something different?

Yes!  I have to.

So this Children's Day, I am going to celebrate in 2 ways. 

First, I am going to learn to laugh more, for no reason at all, to celebrate the child in me. I am going to laugh at the things I can not change. I am going to dance like the wind when I feel like it.  This is for me, the child in me, the child that has been forced to slumber, the child who can fly to the moon on an eyelash, and roll on a cloud.

Second, I am going to do something for a child who is in need.  Educate a child, feed a child, protect a child, any child in need. While I do this at different times in the year, I am using this occasion to pull out my cheque book to give a year of schooling to some children. And I hope that this will enable some children to learn, laugh, grow, play, & eat for a whole 365 days till I recommit to them again.

Is this enough? I truly don't know.
But is it a start? I really hope so.

So to all of you I say, Jawaharlal Nehru's photo may have been programmed in your brain, but you can erase that image if Children's Day and create your own.  I just did, it was simple.

Happy Children's Day!

May the child in us live, laugh, and jump out of the box of constraints we create!!
May we all help a child learn and play and grow!!

 

The Feelings of a soon-to-be Relieved Manager

Over the last few days / weeks, I have been wondering why there is little to nothing written about what managers feel when they quit their jobs. Most research and articles on people quitting jobs list the top reasons for leaving from a person’s point of view as an individual, such as bad managers, lack of recognition, better work environment, challenging role, etc. 

But what about how people managers feel?

So, here I go once again, jumping into something that I don’t know much about, but just having to express myself, much like getting swept along by flood waters!

What do people managers feel when they quit?  What did I (and some of my colleagues and friends) feel when they quit?

1.    Guilt overwhelming Guilt! Whatever your race or religion or country you have worked in, the chances are that as a people manager, when you quit, you feel guilt. You are moving on, going to a new and exciting place that you believe to be, a better place.  A place where you will learn from more challenges, dream about more recognition, get paid better, have a boss who will forever behave as they have when wooing you at the interview stage, etc. But, there is still the feeling of guilt. You are after all leaving your team behind.  You have shared in the good and bad for many moons and now they cannot share in your happiness and anticipation of the good things to come. So how can you benefit when your team does not? That question, above all else, I believe, causes the feeling of guilt.

2.    And then there is the Fear.  The fear of the unknown, the fear of leaving / letting go of what is comfortable, known, & predictable (however bad it may be, it is still predictable). This fear starts sometimes as-early-as when you need to tell your boss that you are quitting, to as-late-as the day you join the new organization. For me, one of the most difficult things to do has been telling my team that I am leaving them; leaving them to go on to better things and leaving them to manage the boss / culture / work that I myself did not want to do much longer or even stand to do much longer. This is the fear of failure, fear that the team will / can fail without me and this failure will reflect on my capability as a manager, the fear that I may really not be needed by my team. 

3.    “Take me with you!” Any good people manager will face the sticky situation of being asked by a team member to “take me along”, find them a role in the new organization.  This question could also be “Should I continue to work here?”  While still working for an organization, albeit on notice, should you as a manager encourage people to leave with you or soon after you? Is it even OK to acknowledge such a request? How can you respond to these questions and not be torn between loyalties? Whatever you do, whatever you say, you will be disloyal to either the organization or your team member, leaving you conflicted.    

4.    Dealing with others’ Emotions: Along with your own emotions of loss and anticipation are the emotions of your team.  Their emotions will be reflected on their faces and in their behavior.  You could be the most objective (or heartless person) in the world, but your teams’ emotions are bound to affect you and in turn change the way you behave with them and the organization at large. Worse still is when you are not “allowed” to tell your team till the very last moment and you face not just their shock but also their ire, knowing that you have let them down by not being honest with them. This can be traumatic for all.

 But as I write this, and I reflect on teams I have left, I realize that whatever I felt, it is all now gone.  I learnt many lessons and am wiser (the subject of another post). My team mates, were then, and are now, my friends.  I am still in touch with them (well, most of them).  I still learn from them.  Some have grabbed the opportunity that my leaving gave and have grown into larger more challenging roles with alacrity.

As I get ready to leave another team I know that they will be OK, because they are OK now.

I am not indispensable

We are all dancing in the rain……