Sunday, April 04, 2010
Crazy Social Media???
I found a funny t-shirt that was hanging on one of the professors door the other day and it was really meaningful in what it had to say. Here is a pic, but the message went a long way in communicating the state of affairs today. I also had some interesting discussion with my friends a few days back about the same and I am curious to see how these platforms will evolve. The general concensus from that discussion was that they did not like some aspects, but since others were doing, they thought they would too. Call it the network effect, or peer pressure, interesting times ahead. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:
Strategic Intuition
I read through Strategic Intuition by William Duggan a month back and found it to be an interesting book to read on how the creative spark of strategic intuition occurs. Duggan presents findings from various sources and identifies the moment of strategic intuition that lead to the idea. At the end of the reading, I realized the many moments when I had the spark on big and trivial things could be called as moments of clarity or strategic intuition.
All of Duggan’s subjects were very knowledgeable of their respective fields, had read widely and had deep involvements or firsthand exposure to some of the larger problems or the Karma of the field they were in. While strategic intuition can happen at any time, the problems they were tackling were upon them. What I find that Duggan does not elaborate on is the role that necessity plays. While Duggan rightly mentions that there is no identifiable way to generate the creative spark on demand, I believe that by following the points listed below, I can be better positioned to identify my Dharma at an apt moment:
1. Read. Read. And Read. Through personal experience, I find that reading puts content on the shelves of our brains. The more variety we read, the more content our brain can use to connect the dots and complete the creative spark.
2. Observation. As Duggan points out, Allen and Gates look at the magazine article which ignited the spark eventually leading to Microsoft. By having a keen eye, we can identify an opportunity or get inputs which would give us our moment of clarity.
3. Persistence. As with all the examples cited in Strategic Intuition, I find a common thread called persistence. Despite rejections and earlier failures, if we stick to our Dharma we can eventually follow that path towards our goal. This leads to my final point on Belief.
4. Belief. While having a spark in time and getting the required clarity can expose our Dharma, not having faith or belief in our capabilities or in the validity of the strategic intuition can unravel our confidence and lead to a path of failure.
The key takeaway for someone looking to enhance their understanding of strategy and improve their strategic thinking skills is:
1. Be open to ideas from outside the organization for they might provide the creative spark required. It is not necessary to act upon all that we hear, but it is imperative to hear out ideas, criticisms, and suggestions from different sources and keep them in the shelves of our brain.
2. Collecting and analyzing data gives us a deep understanding of the situation we are in. It does not give you an idea for what to do about it. The importance of insights from analyzing data cannot be ruled out in generating the creative spark, but without the other aspects described above, analysis does not give us strategic intuition and show us our Dharma.
I find myself reflecting more these days and as I obediently reflected on Duggan’s work, I find an uncertain fear at the back of my mind telling me that despite being prepared, what if you miss the spark. While I know that there is no answer to that, I think that having an appetite for knowledge, enthusiasm for your actions, active engagement and having belief will position you better to finding your Dharma no matter what your Karma is. And this extends to my personal life as well.
All of Duggan’s subjects were very knowledgeable of their respective fields, had read widely and had deep involvements or firsthand exposure to some of the larger problems or the Karma of the field they were in. While strategic intuition can happen at any time, the problems they were tackling were upon them. What I find that Duggan does not elaborate on is the role that necessity plays. While Duggan rightly mentions that there is no identifiable way to generate the creative spark on demand, I believe that by following the points listed below, I can be better positioned to identify my Dharma at an apt moment:
1. Read. Read. And Read. Through personal experience, I find that reading puts content on the shelves of our brains. The more variety we read, the more content our brain can use to connect the dots and complete the creative spark.
2. Observation. As Duggan points out, Allen and Gates look at the magazine article which ignited the spark eventually leading to Microsoft. By having a keen eye, we can identify an opportunity or get inputs which would give us our moment of clarity.
3. Persistence. As with all the examples cited in Strategic Intuition, I find a common thread called persistence. Despite rejections and earlier failures, if we stick to our Dharma we can eventually follow that path towards our goal. This leads to my final point on Belief.
4. Belief. While having a spark in time and getting the required clarity can expose our Dharma, not having faith or belief in our capabilities or in the validity of the strategic intuition can unravel our confidence and lead to a path of failure.
The key takeaway for someone looking to enhance their understanding of strategy and improve their strategic thinking skills is:
1. Be open to ideas from outside the organization for they might provide the creative spark required. It is not necessary to act upon all that we hear, but it is imperative to hear out ideas, criticisms, and suggestions from different sources and keep them in the shelves of our brain.
2. Collecting and analyzing data gives us a deep understanding of the situation we are in. It does not give you an idea for what to do about it. The importance of insights from analyzing data cannot be ruled out in generating the creative spark, but without the other aspects described above, analysis does not give us strategic intuition and show us our Dharma.
I find myself reflecting more these days and as I obediently reflected on Duggan’s work, I find an uncertain fear at the back of my mind telling me that despite being prepared, what if you miss the spark. While I know that there is no answer to that, I think that having an appetite for knowledge, enthusiasm for your actions, active engagement and having belief will position you better to finding your Dharma no matter what your Karma is. And this extends to my personal life as well.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Predictably Irrational
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is an interesting book to read and presents some interesting and surprising insights about human psychology and behavior. Most of the topics Ariely talks about will help us understand human behavior better and, hopefully, improve our decision making process. One cause of concern would be that armed with this knowledge, people could potentially create situation where human behavior can be exploited for illegitimate purposes.
Through some interesting experiments and observations, Ariely appears convincing as some of the examples he talks about seem very real and gives me the feeling of déjà-vu. While the book does not talk about strategy and how the readings contained within affect the strategic process, a reader can weave those insights into different levels of strategy. At the corporate level strategic direction can be managed based on stake holders’ expectations and vice versa. On the product front pricing strategy, for example, could be influenced by understand the psyche of the targeted user.
The key personal takeaways for me from this reading are:
1. Be aware of people’s behavior when dealing with or managing them: people tend to compare things with one another.
2. Manage expectations of the people you work with: As expectations lead to perceptions about reality, managing those expectations early on and setting your goals and requirements upfront will help in building good relationships and creating effective teams that, cohesively, produce superior output.
3. Procrastination can really harm a person as well as create an atmosphere that is not conducive.
4. While it is good to have options, I have to be aware that there might be definite timelines that I would miss in trying to keep multiple options open.
5. Try to be yourself weather at work or at home. This will make things more simple and straightforward.
The key takeaway for someone looking to enhance their understanding of strategy and improve their strategic thinking skills is:
1. Ensure that options available are not a drag on the organization and that switching cost between options is minimal. Internalize the process so that a creep in does not result during strategic planning.
2. Manage expectation of stakeholders when planning. This also translates to effective communication, both from a personal and organizational stand point. Ensuring that we are conveying what we intend to would help reduce confusion and misunderstanding of the goals of the strategic planning/implementation process.
3. Not to make strategic decisions when one is aroused.
When I put the book down after reading, my first instinct was to think how I had been affected by the different aspects that Ariely talks about. Going through the process, I realized that, while it is not possible to completely avoid all the aspects, it makes sense over time to recognize such behavior and plan ahead to ensure our decisions and personal conduct is such that we can talk about it in the open.
Through some interesting experiments and observations, Ariely appears convincing as some of the examples he talks about seem very real and gives me the feeling of déjà-vu. While the book does not talk about strategy and how the readings contained within affect the strategic process, a reader can weave those insights into different levels of strategy. At the corporate level strategic direction can be managed based on stake holders’ expectations and vice versa. On the product front pricing strategy, for example, could be influenced by understand the psyche of the targeted user.
The key personal takeaways for me from this reading are:
1. Be aware of people’s behavior when dealing with or managing them: people tend to compare things with one another.
2. Manage expectations of the people you work with: As expectations lead to perceptions about reality, managing those expectations early on and setting your goals and requirements upfront will help in building good relationships and creating effective teams that, cohesively, produce superior output.
3. Procrastination can really harm a person as well as create an atmosphere that is not conducive.
4. While it is good to have options, I have to be aware that there might be definite timelines that I would miss in trying to keep multiple options open.
5. Try to be yourself weather at work or at home. This will make things more simple and straightforward.
The key takeaway for someone looking to enhance their understanding of strategy and improve their strategic thinking skills is:
1. Ensure that options available are not a drag on the organization and that switching cost between options is minimal. Internalize the process so that a creep in does not result during strategic planning.
2. Manage expectation of stakeholders when planning. This also translates to effective communication, both from a personal and organizational stand point. Ensuring that we are conveying what we intend to would help reduce confusion and misunderstanding of the goals of the strategic planning/implementation process.
3. Not to make strategic decisions when one is aroused.
When I put the book down after reading, my first instinct was to think how I had been affected by the different aspects that Ariely talks about. Going through the process, I realized that, while it is not possible to completely avoid all the aspects, it makes sense over time to recognize such behavior and plan ahead to ensure our decisions and personal conduct is such that we can talk about it in the open.
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