Working and Walking – Where Are You Going?

Working (hard) is much like walking. Where you walk matters.

Walk on a beach and you see vast expanse of the sea.

Walk in the park and you can smell freshly cut grass. Listen the birds chirping early morning songs.

Walk in the gym and you only watch other people working out.

The effort (you put in walking) remains the same. Goal remains the same.

But where you walk changes your perspective.

Common perception is that we do our work. In reality, our work does us.

It shapes us. Our thinking. Our attitude. Our approach to life.

When it comes to working, walking on a treadmill is not a good idea.

It takes as much hard work, and doesn’t take you anywhere.

“Busyness” is not equal to progress.

“Busyness” (walking fast) in wrong direction can quickly lead to failure.

Critical questions then are -

• How is your work shaping you up?
• Where is it taking you to?
• Are you walking on a treadmill?

Photo Courtesy: RMontoro’s Flickr Photostream

Book Review – ‘There’s An Adult In My Soup’ By Kim and Jason Kotecki

I am currently reading a simple yet amazing book titled “There’s An Adult In My Soup” by Kim and Jason Kotecki. Thanks to Kim and Jason for sending me a signed copy. They are on a mission fighting “Adultitis” – typical adult syndromes that infect us as we grow. In that process, we loose our child-like qualities that made us happy and jovial. Our daily conundrums trap us and we forget that life happens to us when we are busy making other things happen. This book is a gentle reminder to remain open, optimistic and child-like to enjoy the simple joys of life.

Excerpt From chapter “Trading the Cracker Jack Prizes for the Peanuts”

God has scattered these free prizes all around us: a watercolor sunset, the smell of fresh cut grass, the intricacy of a snowflake. We’re so busy being self-absorbed and stressed-out that we miss them all because they’re hidden just below the surface of our hurried consciousness.

Any book that relates well with your current circumstances will quickly hit you. So if you are going through a “busyness” syndrome and looking out for more from life, this book will quickly break the ice and become a good guiding friend. Better yet, this book will lead to some self-revelation if you are suffering from adultitis but don’t know about it yet! Jason’s illustrations in the beginning of every chapter makes it more interactive and light-weight.

Excerpt From chapter “While you were busy, life passed by”

Here’s what’s really happening: life is passing us by. We miss out on important stuff because we’re convinced that the busyness is a standard operating procedure. And we’re deceived by the mirage that someday, if we work hard enough, our to-do list will be cleared. As David Allen reminds us in Getting Things Done, you will die with things STILL in your to-do list. This never-ending hamster wheel is a part of adulthood we need to escape from now and then.

If you like the book, you will also love reading Kim and Jason’s Blog. 

Explicit versus Tacit - Content versus Process

Difficult situations like slowdown force organizations/managers to do cost-benefit analysis. Salary you are paid is a cost and what you do in the organization for that cost generates value.

Value has two components – tangible and intangible.

Tangible value (easier to visualize) is explicit knowledge of subject (e.g. knowledge of .NET programming or software testing), revenue, efficiencies, numbers etc. This is important.

Intangible value (which is also hard to visualize) is tacit knowledge, knowledge on processes, knowledge on how to deal with typical situations/clients, attitude, different ways of doing things, workarounds etc. This is hard to visualize and measure. But impact of this value is huge.

So from organization/manager’s standpoint – it is important to see value as a sum-total of tangible and intangible value that someone brings on board while rewarding or hiring.

In this regards, I loved what Seth Godin has written in his post “What are you good at?”. He writes about explicit versus tacit knowledge. Crux is that explicit knowledge on subject can be easily learnt. Tacit knowledge only comes with experience within and outside the organizations. There are no shortcuts to acquire tacit knowledge.

Seth Godin writes:

As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content.

Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you’ve developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head.
Domain knowledge is important, but it’s (often) easily learnable.

Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it’s usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it’s hard to accredit or check off in a database.

Knowing difference between explicit and tacit aspects of one’s knowledge is very crucial from an individual standpoint.

I can easily relate contents of this post with Tom Peter’s saying “Hard is soft. Soft is Hard.” More elaboration on this in the next post.

Have a fantastic weekend!