When we work on large scale projects, long term assignments or complex change initiatives – we decompose our work into smaller chunks that are more manageable. Geeks refer to this technique as “modularization”. We create a set of smaller tasks that we perform according to a schedule to achieve milestones, and hence the objective. It […]
January 2011 – a new year that started with new energy, new hopes and new aspirations. A year to take our endeavors to the next level and relentlessly chase excellence. Perhaps a reason why I started my year with this post on Excellence. In case you missed reading any of my posts, here is a […]
Jack Welch said, “An organizations ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the greatest competitive advantage.” Continuous learning and its respective implementation to generate desired business outcomes is at the core of successful organizations. Peter Senge defined a learning organization as the one “where people continually expand their capacity to create […]
When we run a business or execute a project, we set clear goals of what we want to achieve, create detailed plans, devise strategies and set up milestones. But leadership, just like life, is ambiguous and paradoxical. People default, conflicts happen, clients change their requirements, demand/supply suddenly flips, things just don’t work as expected, delays […]
“Delivering Value” is the buzzword these days. Companies are working ways out to deliver more value, people in organizations are evaluated based on value they create and clients seek “value-adds” in products and services they purchase. It is all a value game, I agree, and focusing on value delivery is at the core of any […]
I have been a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi – one of the greatest leaders India has ever produced. I recently visited Sabarmati Ashram, one of the residences of Gandhi, where we got a glimpse into Gandhi’s life as a national leader. One thing that really struck me was the simplicity of his life and […]
I was casually discussing quality and excellence with one of my old friends. We were exchanging our ideas on these topics, when I realized that he used the words quality and excellence interchangeably. This led to some more thinking and here’s what I realized: Quality is generally extrinsic. It is driven by external demands. We […]
Problems, challenges and inefficiencies (in one way or the other) are a part of any organization. How organizations deal with them makes all the difference. In my career so far, I have (broadly) seen two kinds of organizations. First are the ones who know the problem areas, but are not willing to invest in having […]
I have seen organizations that do the following. They define their work processes and implement them across the organization to get certified against a certain standard (like ISO). Standards enforce compliance and sometimes, leaders falls in a trap of linking the level of compliance with performance of individuals. This is how a “constraint” mindset works. […]