“Soap bubble” - Transition to a new role

In the corporate environment, change of job either by joining a new organization or job rotations is important and inevitable.  These changes (new person in a new role) helps the individual to learn / contribute in the organization and also gives a fresh perspective to the function.

My questions to the hiring manger are, when we get a new person to the new role (internal or external hire),

-          - are we expecting the person jump start and produce results ?

-          - are we giving her enough time to settle down ?

-          - are we allocating resources in educating about the org / role ?

-          - do we have sufficient self-learning material?

I    I feel as a hiring manager we need to spend quality time with the “new hire” on induction, not just for the job role, also about the group, organization, people, culture, processes, decisions, goals, etc.   I often see Managers are in a rush to deploy the person into the role (billable project or otherwise) and expect the person to produce value (results) quickly and allow a natural path of long learning cycle about the rest of the organization.

I am sharing my experience when I joined this organization little more than three years ago.   I was joining this company after a long stint of 22 years in my previous organization;  I had some butterflies in my stomach.   I also knew in the new role, I will be inducting lot of leaders and hence decided to watch my transition bit more granular for the first 90 days.

First, I said to myself ; in my first 90 days, I will take over from the incumbent like a “soap bubble” and I will ensure “the bubble” does not break.  I also said, I will neither attempt to re-size nor reshape the bubble.  The meaning here is, will understand the details on its own merits; however set aside the changes / recommendations post 90 days.

Second, I did jot down all my interactions with the colleagues and categorized them as “value consumed” or “value delivered”.    If I had learnt / understood something from someone, I have categorized those interactions as “value consumed” and given a numerical value of “minus 1” and if have I have contributed something significant in the conversation, solutions, etc, categorized those as “value delivered” and given a numerical value of “plus 1”.   At the end of each day, computed the cumulative net value delivered to the organization and plotted a graph.   As expected the net value was –ve initially and more –ve later, less –ve over a period of time, break-even and grew +ve thereafter.    Interestingly,  it took about seven weeks for a break-even in my case.

Third, I have broken down the net value further by functions (ex: Delivery, pre-sales, Talent acquisition, etc).  The observation here is, some of the function had a more +ve net value and some of had more –ve net value at the end of 90 days.  I am not advocating more positive is good or more negative is bad.    The point, I am driving is depends on the role we are hiring the person, if we can steer the induction we may get better results.  

Fourth, I have also recorded the people who have spent time with me in my transition and group them as top management, Sr management (mostly peers in my case), team, self-reading, etc.  In my first 90 days, about 137 hours are spent on me in various forms of interactions.  Interestingly, self-reading was on the lower side.  The learning I had on this is, when we hire new people, it is important to spend time with in educating about the organization (beyond the job role)  and these interactions are not one way, it has to be on push-pull mode, meaning the new employee has to pull people into the conversations. 

Fifth, I had jotted down my recommendations on what we need to do better; more from an “outside-in” perspective and did present this to my mangers after about 120 days of joining the organization. My managers not only appreciated those views, also given me green signal to implement some of those and I am glad to say more the three-fourths of these ideas are implemented.

My transition has given me learning on hiring and inducting people in new roles, the key ones are

1      1) Allow new hire to understand the organization beyond the job role (don’t break the soap bubble).

2      2) Focus the transition on the key areas beyond the job role as well.

3      3) Allocate time and resources for transition (including the hiring manger’s time).

4     4) Motivate the person to get fresh perspective (outside-in) in the early days, before s/he get used the organization.    Recognize good ideas and explore implementation.

5     5) Create self-reading material.

Thank you for reading this, looking forward for your comments.

Smiles on many faces during my children birthday anniversary this week

This week we had series of birthday anniversaries at our home; my elder daugther's birthday on 23rd May,  my son's on 24th May and my wife's on 26th May.

My children celebrated their brithday anniversaries little differently,  thanks to their mother for the idea and the efforts.

On my daughter's birthday;  she went and distrubuted food, water and sweets to needy / beggars in the area we live in; we drove around the localilty and distributed fresh home cooked food for about 15 people.

On my son's birthday;  he went around the area and distributed new clothes  to about 10 needy and beggars.   I think those people would have got an opportunity to wear new clothes may be first time in their life.

Both my son and daugther have felt really satisfied they way they celebrated their birthday anniversaries.

In normal course it would have been some cake, gifts and party; and smiles only on the children;  this celeberation has created smiles on others.

 

Results by motivation – “I am an Energy Star”

Results by motivation –

“I am an Energy Star”

Show me Results!  --  this is something we want anywhere;  at home, work, utility services; government, students, schools, movies, sports…

How do get the desired results – carrot or stick? Both? Neither?  Luck?

Let me narrate one motivation strategy I used at my home.

We have three children at home; one of the constant dialogue I hear at home is “hey, whoever has switched on the light/fan;  switch it off”   -- the response from children is generally; “it’s not me” .     I have heard these noises many many times.  I was telling my children and wife;  “who” is not very important;  anyone can put off lights / fans / TV when not in use;  these lectures did not work.

I have put a simple motivation strategy;  devised a scoring card called “I am an Energy Star”.  This is pasted in the living room, side of the refrigerator;  the rule is anyone who switches off any energy device which is ON unnecessarily; will get one star.   More the stars, more the points and children would get a gift.  Believe me, it clicked instantly, and there is a competition to switch  OFF devices to gain stars  -- sometimes it works too much; even the necessary lights are put OFF.   

Let us switch to organization scenario,  as Leaders how are we working with our team to achieve results – by motivation techniques?  Or stick (if you don’t do this, then… ) approach.  Recollect few instances of the approaches you have practice recently with your colleagues and analyze which has given sustained results. It will be great if you can share your views and some examples of this.

Btw, I was sharing this “I am an Energy Star” example with two of my colleagues recently;  they implemented at home and it worked for them!

Won Silver or Lost Gold?

Won Silver or Lost Gold?

London 2012 Olympics is just round the corner and London and rest of the world is so excited about this and looking forward for this event. One thing which comes to mind on the sports event is prizes and medals.

Olympics are bundled with lots of sports like athletics, football, swimming, etc. At the end of every event three prizes are given, it is mostly GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.

What do you think is going on in the mind of an athlete who has got Silver medal, is she happy about the prize? I can hear you saying – “of course, she is”. I heard some of you saying, “No, she is upset”. If we analyse it, she might have both the feelings; happy for winning Silver and upset for losing Gold. So what do we call this as Won Silver? Or Lost Gold?

I see this kind of feeling happens in our workplace as well, one of the situations I can think of is performance appraisal. If one gets “Exceeds Expectations”, does she feels happy about it or upset for not reaching “Outstanding”. In my opinion one should have both the feelings, “Won Silver” feeling should give confidence on oneself and a great motivation to keep going and at the same time “Lost Gold” feeling should help to reset the goal, identify gaps and striver harder to reach gold (goal?).

What is your view about this? What is your feeling in similar situations? What do you think is a good approach?

At that moment, I knew what love is - Happy International Women day

Happy International Women’s Day.

 

First, let me introduce myself;  I am a father of two; one smart boy and a sweet little  girl.   This article is based on what I have experienced in life.

Let me start with my son, who was born ten years ago, on a Wednesday evening in the millennium year 2000.   I got a phone call that day morning to let me know that my wife was admitted in  hospital for delivery, and was advised not to worry.  Tension mounted to this first time father - I flew from Bangalore to Chennai with lot of anxiety about the new born, will my wife be safe, will the baby he healthy, is it going to be boy or girl, will the baby  look like me, etc, etc.   When my son was born I was flying very high (quite literally, at 30000 feet above ground).    It was so timed, when I reached the hospital the nurse was getting the baby out and I was the first person to take the baby on hand.  When the nurse put the infant on my arms, I just frozen for a second and thrilled with the sudden promotion as a father.  I heard many times, you don’t have to teach fish to swim,  I think the same is true for the infants to smile, I got mesmerized by the smile of the 30 minutes old infant.   It was an wonderful experience of a first time father, a little smile from the baby made my life -  at the moment, I knew what love is as a father.

My son grew up and at every stage, I had a lot of learning.  During he early stages, learnt to sleep (and not sleep)  in haphazard timings; learnt tiny bit of work (large portion was done by my wife!!) on diaper change, feeding and so on.   During his toddler stage, I learnt quite of rhymes and stories to get occupied with  him, particularly on bed time.    When the little boy grew up,  I learnt things from him, one such example -  me and my son were try to quench our thirst with tender coconut,  took the straw out with hand closed on one side and let the coconut water on the ground. I asked him, “Karthik, why are you wasting the water?”, his response was “I am cleaning the straw, though the coconut water may be good, with dirt in the straw it will make it bad”. I learnt this simple technique from my son – at the moment, more than love I was pride to learn from us son.

Seven years later, my daughter was born.   This time I was with my wife through the pregnancy, as were living in England did not have extended family support during the first nine months of her pregnancy.  I want to tell you one thing during my wife’s pregnancy, my nature of job warrants a lot of long phone conversations, my wife used to tell me that, “your daughter when born will recognize you only by voice”,  when I joked that time, but I realized that was true later.   I could still remember inch by inch when my wife went through the labor, I was with her during that time.   While on one hand we were eagerly waiting for the  baby to arrive, on the other hand I was very tensed, looking at the pains what my wife was go through, after a long labor the sweet little girl was out to the world.    My wife was still suffering with pains and discomfort post labor.  However when the pink beauty was placed on the arms of my wife, I saw a brightness (can’t be measured by watts) on her face – at the moment, I knew what love is as a mother.

Me, my wife and my son were experiencing the little one grew up day by day.  I still recollect my son counted the number times her sister “turned around” when she was about 3 months old.  Our daughter also have gave us lot of learning in the early stages, this time managing two children who are six years apart, balancing the love and managing possessiveness of both children.

When my daughter was around two years old she started speaking few words,  any parent would want their child to say Amma (Mom in tamil) as the first word, but I did not want my child to say Amma (as my wife passed away when my daughter was 8 months old).   After my wife passed away, I doubled my role as father and mother for my children with support from my other family members.   Days, weeks and months passed by, my daugther was making few words and sentences and very playful.   One day she said “Amma” and it was me (her father) whom she called as “Amma”,  it was a very mixed feeling, very happy when my daughter called me (she still does) as Mother and very sad that she did not have actual mother.   This is really rare recognition to a father I am will remember this for my life.  I must tell you, at the moment, as a man I knew myself what a love is as a mother, great experience, truly women are gifted. 

Happy International Womens day – out of numerous roles what a woman plays in life MOTHER is the greatest role.

Technology overdose?

Many of us have seen so much of technology transformation in our life, even in the short span of 10-20 years time frame.

Take an example of telecommuncation in India which as made now “Geography as History”, gone are the days where one has to wait in queue for 5-6 years for a landline connection, now you have service providers in queue at your door steps in 5-6 minutes.

Last weekend, I was in staying in outskirts of Thane (near Mumbai) for a team event, the place where we stayed has no mobile phone signal. I was cut off without phone and internet from Friday night to Saturday evening; felt competely restless without wirless connection. I and my colleague managed to find some spots in the resort where there was atleast 10% intermitent signal to send SMS (we have named them as SMS spots). Btw, it is rare to find a holiday spot without wirless connection – must be an USP for that resort!.

I am thinking, are we over using (over dependant) on technology than required?; let us talk about few instances, let me start with me

1. When I moved to Chennai two and half years ago, was settling down in a house; things were scattered all over, my son’s laptop came in handy as a mirror to shave (too expensive for a mirror and not for the right use, isn’t it?)

2. Few years ago (non mobile phone days), if you had to pickup someone at the train station, there must a standard landmark to wait, like “book stall”, “tea shop on platform10” and so on. I am sure you would have picked the person without any hassle. Now with mobile phones, you atleast make some five calls, before you trace the person. Technology made us efficient?

3. How many times you have gone to the store and then called your partner (or someone at home) to send you txt msg on what to buy, where did the small chit of paper with grocer list go?

Can you discuss your examples of technology overdose?

22/12

22/12

When we see dates represnted like this, now a days (atleast after 9/11) our mind first thinks what is the worst that happened on this day.

In the last ten years so, along with many other things good things happened in the world, few worsts (wish there were only few!) also happened. 9/11(New York Twin Towers attack), 26/11 (Bombay blasts), 7/7 (London blasts), 26/12 (Tsunami) and earlier this year 13/2 (Pune blasts) - think of the damage to the lives, society, anger, scare, worries and the new risks these events have created, mind boggling!!. But all these have given us new learnings, which the world is practicing to avoid future incidents like these.

You may think, what is this 22/12? - It is my costly holiday ever!

I am writing here about my personal worst which happened on 22-Dec-2007 during our holiday in India (used to live in UK those days). My family (me, my wife, my 7 year old son and 8 months old daugther) decided to spend our Christmas and New Year in India with family and friends.

I have taken my wife to a Doctor for an consultation for herina (consulted few Doc in UK prior to the holiday and the recommendation was to do a surgery and it not an urgency), the Doctor whom we met also said the same thing (surgery), but only thing he said was “get it done the next day” and we could go back to UK as planned. We were sort of “mesmerised” by the sweet talk, did not think too much and trusted him so mcuh, got the surgery done next day and some complications post surgery and she passed away on 22-Dec-2007 leaving behind the children and me – isn’t a very costly holiday (mistake)? (The details on how the things unfolded can be read by an internet search on my name)

Keeping the story short, like the world worsts gave learning; there were quite a few learning from my 22/12; I keep advising many others about the hard learning we had; thought I can give my point of view when it comes to health

a) Do not get carried away by advertisement / TV shows / big buildings


b) Please do not rush


c) Do your own due diligence, particularly when things are not an emergency


d) Try and understand the medical terms, do research prior (use internet well)


e) Please ask questions, at every stage.


f) Don’t say “I can spend anything”


g) Know patient rights


h) Have second, third opinions before taking any critical decisions




Above all, lead a healthy life – and my new principle is “Don’t meet a Doctor, if you want meet, do so as a friend or relative” for that lead a healthy life. Frankly I have few Doctors whom I met as a patient but having good relatiionship as friend – things are not that bad everywhere, but we need to be careful.



Thanks for reading, and finally I wish we get to see more of 25/12s (Jesus Christ birthday) and 2/10s (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday) to the world and not those of 9/11 types.