Looking Back at 2018

This blog has been my online home for over 12 years, even before I got onto Facebook and Twitter. The blog has evolved along with me. It is a platform for me to learn, think clearly and share whatever I learn through posts and sketchnotes.

This blog has had an amazing journey so far. Hundreds of posts, tens of thousands of readers each month and plenty of social sharing just encourages me further to continue this journey.

This year was a slow one for blogging but here is a round up of some of the most popular post written in 2018:

• Creativity: Jane Kenyon’s Wise Words to Live By
• Three Levels of Trust in Relationships
• Seth Godin on The Human Side of Business
• Storytelling: Begin With The End in Mind
• Nancy Duarte on Storytelling in Business
• Leadership: Humility and Focusing on Others
• On Disrupting Yourself
• Share to Learn
• 5 Pointers on How to Think Clearly
• On Learning Slowly
• Peter Senge on Leadership Development

For 2019, one of my intentions is to get back to blogging more regularly (once a week) and get into a regular rhythm of consuming meaningful stuff, thinking, reflecting on my experiences, learning and sharing.

The Year of Sketchnotes Going Places

My pursuit of synthesizing and curating my lessons through sketchnotes found newer grounds.

One of the major milestones in this journey was visualizing case studies for Tiffani Bova’s new book “Growth IQ – Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business” and it was a great learning experience.

It is an amazing book that became a Wall Street Journal bestseller within a few weeks and Tiffani has squeezed years of experience in this book to outline 10 growth paths through well researched case studies for each growth path.

Apart from this, sketch notes also went places and here are a few glimpses:

I created a sketchnote selfie last year and it inspired Claire (National Health Services, UK) to encourage her workshop participants to create their sketchnote selfies. Here are a bunch of people with their sketchnote selfies!

My blog was featured in Training and Development magazine (published by Association of Training and Development) last year with a special mention of sketchnotes.

My sketchnote on “Working Out Loud” was featured at European Commission in June.

Karyn Prather from Kimberly Clark (a consumer packaged goods company that has created strong five billion-dollar brands including Huggies, Kleenex, and Scott) presented my sketchnote (and insights from the amazing John Stepper) at Microsoft Ignite Content 2018, Orlando FL in September 2018.

My #sketchnote on Mindset Shifts for Transformation was presented at AIM Norway Symposium, University of Oslo by Thomas Anglero. AIM stands for Artificial Intelligence, Minds+Machines.

Richard Tubb for sharing my insights and sketchnote to French IT and MSP companies in early December at Paris.

My biggest lesson from all this?

Labor of love is powerful. Applying what you learn is powerful. And when your gifts are deployed in significant service of others through generous sharing, it results in leverage and learning.

Grateful for all the Recognitions

I consider all recognitions as by-products of the pursuit and once in a while, when you think of them, they only encourage the pursuit.

For the Fifth consecutive year, I was fortunate to be ranked amongst Top 30 Indian HR Influencers on Social Media in May 2018.

Also, a big thanks to my friend Kurt Harden for including QAspire blog in his annual list of “25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter” for 6th consecutive year. Love all the selections in this list and always grateful for his generosity.

Change is a Constant Work

At work, it was again a year of change. Leading an organization in times of change is a challenge and an opportunity to learn a great deal in the process. Nothing in business is (and can be) stagnant and job of leaders is to communicate relentlessly and enable people make sense of changes. Leaders create an ecosystem where people not only adapt to change but also contribute positively to it.

And Other Stuff

I tried as much as possible to stay close to my intent of consuming less and creating more, dwelling in possibility and simplifying. I think I can do better on that last bit of simplifying since I have a tendency to take on more than I can handle.

Competing with the self is always exhausting because you never win!  But guided by intent of learning constantly, sharing generously and putting it al to good use, my journey continues.

A Note of Gratitude

This blog is not possible without YOU – who care to read what I write, share it along widely and encourage me all the way. I am extremely grateful for everyone who read this blog, are connected on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Here’s to a glorious 2019!