The Myths of 2G Spectrum and the Reality - My View

Referring to my previous post and an email I saw from a colleague.. forced me to write this post up... The entire post is made up of those thoughts on how I analysed the whole 2G spectrum thing and one reason I write this post in this blog is also due to the fact that as Leadership and as Authentic leaders many of the leaders have to sit in chairs of victims just because the myths become allegations and truth is un-revealed.

For those of my friends who are not in India and do not know about this can just click here and find relevant material to read... so here is how I see the whole 2G spectrum scam, before I do that I think it is also important for people to first understand the core of economics... I am glad today that a few of those lectures I attended in my Commerce graduation help me understand this better...

What is a Spectrum?

Well I am sure as a good googler you would have done a search and gone to the wikipedia definition of Spectrum here... I just want to put it in a sporty kid language... to me Spectrum is how various waves transmit the intensity... or just say these are various types of waves that carry signal... more generally this is how our data [Voice, data etc] will be carried faster [Internet, telephone, satellite signals etc]... a deeper but more precise way to see spectrum is watch the rainbow colors that are omitted when you expose your eye to see sunlight through a diamond... In this case where we are dealing, it is all about technology and physics, so it is a natural and a scarce resource.... the logic of advanced technology and demand / supply rules make it scarce.

What is demand / Supply?

I am sure you know this.. if supply is less and demand more... you know what happens.... You shell a lot of money out, don't you?

However if the demand is less and the supply is less.... it is called scarcity of a resource... something that becomes important when an advanced technology comes in and improvises the supply...

Why demand/supply is important here to discuss?

Well going the laws of (fr)economics, spectrum would have had no such issue if the resources would have less demand in future.. but with Technology it appears that the spectrum is going to be one elastic resource that will have ability to generate more and more supply as technology enhances [Nothing like petroleum, which can have less supply some time in future]

How does Spectrum licences happen?

At least from an Indian standpoint a spectrum is allocated based on various approaches..

• 1. First come first server [Whoever is following a set of criteria and comes first to approach wins the license]
• 2. Auction [A regular tender process, whoever bids more gets its]
• 3. Specific criteria driven [If you have X and Y as initial basic criteria then you can get it ]

In case of 2G spectrum license allocation it appears that the first come first serve was used.. means whoever approached first got the license.. the same method A. Raja's predecessor has applied...

So then what is the scam here that opposition parties and media is hyping about?

Well in this case of 2G spectrum license allocation, it is said that though A. Raja applied the same method as his predecessors he did not apply it in as in format.. he did some changes[some conditions changed] that would benefit only a few telecoms companies... How much this makes sense? Well it could... if somebody asks for X money to make sure that the Y conditions are put so XYZ companies get the license...

Does this mean Raja has not taken any money?

As far as I have followed up the news and details... NO.. there is no allegations so far that Raja or anyone else has taken out of these licenses... There are speculations that there is some money stashed in for changing the dates and criteria...

So where does the 1.76 lakh crore figure come from?

Well when the government decided to release the 3G spectrum licenses they realized the potential money an auction could have got for the 2G spectrum also... all the hype the media and some of the opposition is making is about this figure and not actually any corruption figure.. of course the conversations between Nira Radia and others that have been released over Internet and media just adds different flavors to the issue, but it still doesn't mean that there has been X money taken by Y...

So if government loss 1.76 lakh crore, it means people lost that money or it was people's money?

Hell NO... A lot of if's and but's here... but here is my simple understanding on this...

Option A

If an auction was held for a 2G spectrum:

say auction costs the telecom company at 100 Rs

The Infrastructure costs them 50 Rs

The 100 Rs would earn the telecom company Rs 30 in 5 yrs

means total costs for telecom company is 180 Rs.. now to cover this 180 Rs I am sure the 2G services will cost say 2 Rs per customer... of course this would include some profits for the telecom company..

Option B

If given on the first come first serve

say auction costs the telecom company at 50 Rs

The Infrastructure costs them 50 Rs

The 50 Rs would earn the telecom company Rs 15 in 5 yrs

means total costs for telecom company is 115 Rs.. now to cover this 115 Rs I am sure the 2G services will cost say 1 Rs per customer... of course this would include some profits for the telecom company..

So who earns more? customer? who pays more if auctions are costlier.. customer?

What is the real issue?

I believe the leaked conversations, media hype, a bit of uncontrolled developments, lack of understanding, speculations, a berg of corruption of course and a lot of miscommunication and transparency issues...

• Spectrum licenses should have been first analysed.. not by A. Raja but also by the previous governments and should have made sure that we take foot steps or analysed steps other countries used in this process...

• There should have been a clear picture of what , how and where the licenses were granted to whom and why.

• There should be a clear statement from government that the cheaper the spectrum , the cheaper it is expected to cost people.
  
  
• The corrupt and the ones in radar as expected needs to be bought to papers...

I hope I tried to be as much detailed as I could... I am sure there are different views on this... but I understand... a lot of times leaders and managers make decisions based on circumstances... it is easier to blame it afterwards... but nobody wants to make the decision in the first place, and if some do.. people want to blame it on their frustrations....

So if Dhoni puts Nehra to bowl first is no different to me then Raja putting the license granting method... the resource waste that has happened in this process may be linked to people's money... but believe me in case of 2G spectrum... it would have cost the people a fortune if there was a big auction fight for the licenses....

P.S

This is my personal view on the whole spectrum thing and I dont endorse anyone to be innocent or accused, all this matter is in court of law and it will take it due course to punish the one's responsible.

I also maybe wrong in my analysis, but what I have analysed is based on the facts that are available to me over so many internet sources and news and the little economic understanding.

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What is it like to have a healthy workspace?

Some body asked a question on Quora .. on how to create a healthy work environment with respect to the workspace not a cultural aspect included really... reminded me of a post written way back in September on Healthy Environments But I think that is not enough.. I missed to cover the healthy workspace issue for which I am fighting and struggling now for almost months.. So what is a healthy workspace structure?

Free Will
A structure that helps engineers or team members push their chairs and roll to the desk of his pair or team mate. A structure that will help the engineers to freely move in and around the office. No heavy cubicle structures, no heavy barriers. I really think the studio type structures helps free space all over and also effects the luxury to have a free will space for the engineers. Of course if you are not a development team and you have clients and customers visiting you very often, it doesn't make sense to have this type of structure. In such cases better keep a separate space a bit away from the development section.

Loads of NON CHAIR related sitting arrangements
Sofa, cushions, bean bags , lazy rolls help the engineers take a break from the regularly back-aching chairs.. A set of bean bags lying around helps people to pick there laptops and start working from there.. of course helps the teams light approach.

Fun
A bit of fun, jokes around is very much required. People obsessed with silence and concentration phobia are the only blockers, but there is always this need to get them involved. Fun activities needs to be done only in the workspace and not in conference rooms.. I sometimes prefer gatherings and announcements in the open areas.. so other teams can also have a glimpse of it. Builds a liking towards a team as a whole..

The bit of Noise
Light music is always inspiring, people talking , debating around is highly effective. If you have everyone with their headsets on listening to their own choices of music it is like working in a graveyard. I also prefer rotational DJ's unfortunately not many takers always. A central music system lets you learn choices of people.. helps people go and ask DJ to demand for specific music to be played.

UnPrivate Affairs
NO to Cubicles and cabins.. If managers and leads are going to sit in cabins, they are away from what is happening. Not that you should be placed to supervise / monitor people.. but been with the team helps you understand the day to day issues. You will always find leaders sitting with teams to be more interactive and pleasant than ones sitting in cabins.. of course not to forget you have to face those meaningless cribbers who whine about everything and some scared goats who cannot give you feedback openly. Who cares for them anyways?

Loaded Interactions
Promote and prosper the culture of open interactions.. I always like to jump into conversations and talk about things.. this helps build a good rapport and understanding of people's principles, values and attitudes. No matter people call you nosy or not.. ensure that open interactions are a part of your culture.

A decent floor plan for an interactive agile team

Smiling faces
If there are none.. you were as well good at those government offices with fat bellies all around you.

Visible walls
Have walls that puts Team events, status of teams work and agile boards.. of course visible to everyone. Try to not keep these walls with stale data.. a stale wall represents the laziness of the team.

Play areas 
Small areas where you can play a short few handy games.. like a mini cycle, a game of one touch cricket, a bit of golf etc. Rolling soft toys, balls and gadgets whats the harm if you have a developer with a barbie doll on his desk?

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Appraisal and Performance Criteria

I must have got at least a few stares and a few comments from friends that the post around How to handle Bad Appraisal was a employer perspective and very little thought was given for how one feels like when the appraisal goes wrong.

I felt it was not a employer perspective, instead it was a perspective on how one should cope up with such situation no matter what you are employee or employer... anyways, since I deal with development Teams more closely .. I also got a question that said that usually the Key Result areas or the performance evaluation critieria's are not made very clear, bench marks are not set , there are no clear definition of success and fail parameters and thus when it comes to appraisal time the developer / engineer thinks that he was the best and did the best and the Manager thinks that there was good work done, but there are a lot of things that did not go well.... So here I thought I would put together a few questions that can be used as indicators to one's performance . These questions would help define cleared goals and/or also in turn help a better appraisal process....

1. Attitude

Q. How does he/she perceive his/her job?

Q. How does he/she perceives he/she role in the Team?

Q. Do he/she stand by the Team, helping them on issues and small troubles?

Q. Do he/she needs to be called for help? or he/she walks by to help others?

Q. How does he/she take change?

Q. How does he/she work in absurd condition? tight deadline and power outages or urgent work needed to be solved but machine is slow, or long hours and so on.

Q. For a failed commitment how does he/she react? Blame on others, things, accepting mistakes, or retrospecting to improve?

2. Understanding

Q. How well does he/she understand the requirement and makes other understand it?

Q. How well does he/she adapt to the project and helps other adapt?

Q. How much of self time is spent on exploring the requirements?

Q. How much of value does he/she add to the Project?

Q. How many challenges or questions are raised by he/she

Q. How much depth is the understanding? like a high level feature understanding or a detailed scope?

3. Communication

Q. How does he/she communicate with the Teams.

Q. How frequently does he/she update about the actual progress to others?

Q. How much time is spent by him/her on the interactions related to project tasks with the Team?

Q. How well the person says YES or NO?

Q. How well does he/she explain the reason to those YES and NO

4. Reaction

Q. How does he/she react to a changed requirement at the last moment?

Q. How does he/she reacts when he/she is not center of attraction?

Q. How does he/she react to immediate and drastic change?

Q. How does he/she react to negative changes?

Q. How much of cribbing, whining, crying does he/she get past a task he/she is not supposed to do?

5. Skills

Q. How fast does he/she do his/her work?

Q. Are the core competencies utilized best?

Q. what are his/her best skills? Does he/she improvise on them?

Q. Does he/she document what and how he/she is going to do the task?

Q. Does he/she demonstrate frequent and consistent improvement?

Q. Does he/she actually do things instead of just talking about them?

6. Quality

Q. Is the quality of work done good?

Q. How many iterations happen when he/she does some work like estimation? Plans etc?

Q. How many bugs are created on the work done by him/her?

Q. How much of re-engineering and rework has been done on the task done by him/her?

Q. How much self initiatives are driven by him/her in improving the quality of the product?

Q. How many bugs are caught during the testing, by the customers, by him/her self?

7. Organization

Q. How does he/she manager his/her time?

Q. is he/she planned and organized?

Q. How is his/her desk kept? clean, dirty?

Q. How well does he/she plan the meetings and other times?

Q. Are the estimates given by him/her met? if not why?

8. Ownership

Q. Does he/she care about the module and takes he/she is doing?

Q. Do he/she take responsibility and show authority on his/her task?

Q. Is he/she passionate about what they are doing?

Well these are just those few questions that you as a Manager needs to ask yourself when you are putting someone on a performance appraisal. Pull these questions, customize it to your Team and let them answer these for themselves.. Your development Team's may get the best answers for themselves... Keep a lot of scope for project or release driven retrospectives as they are the best indicators of how one did...

In the end remember this is just one way to know what improvements you need to pull over for your Team instead of having a discussion "I did everything you asked me for, now why is it a bad appraisal?" or "You did OK , but not great"

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Control Vs Empowerment

We all are control freaks.. Yes I mean it.. We all are born to be control freaks.. We need as much control on things as we could get, no matter what you are doing. Don't agree?

Ask the Finance Minister isn't he controlling the economy?
Too far? Ask the Finance Director of your company for that extra dollar and see what and how he reacts?
Everyone sitting in any chair is a control freak.. for Good or for Bad.. they want to control, We want to control.

Anyways... the point is not to tell who is control freak and who not.. The idea of the post is how do we know if we are control freaks...

I had a discussion with Ani a few days ago...during the discussion he said that when 2 people get into a discussion, 1 person tries to dominate the discussion and the other gets bullied.. How would one have a fruitful discussion in such case? I agree... I have seen Managers going into discussion and not letting scope to have a discussion, result a unsatisfied orator... A meaningless argument, a odourless debate..

One of the major issues with several managers is that they think by controlling things they can do what they want to get done or vice versa... I dont believe so... A few months ago my kids were pushed into swimming classes.. the fear of drowning into water resulted in lot of yelling and crying when the tutor tried to get them even into knee-deep water.. Several attempts made to force, to throw them into water , to shout at them and to punish them to get into the swimming pool did not get them roll there hands and legs in the pool. Surf pads, floaters nothing was helping.. The tutor then caught a simple way to get them in... they were made to lay on a water bed where they could float and sleep.. a couple of days the water bed was pooled out without air and they still remained calm in water, a few days later they chose a double floater that would float them no matter where in water they would stand.. the fear started vanishing, confidence grew... result they started swimming.

The lesson I learn from this was simple...

The moment you try to force your or someone else's wish onto others it drives a human being to think that it is control, results in resistance no matter if it is for good or bad for them.

Control also has a very short life( Watch movie Matilda).

Control creates unhappiness.

Control drives dis-comfort.

Control invites dependency and troubles

Control creates arrogance

Control stalls growth

So how to not control?

Discuss

Suggest

Ask

Debate

Never impose

Never force

Never be pushy

Enable to make decision

Help in understanding facts and making decisions

Back up and support pre and post decision period.. no matter what the result is

Learn to listen, Learn to adapt to change

Learn to hear out

All of this will help the person do things you want him to do, on his own, realising the objective and trying to achieve the same goals... Yes that is what is Empowerment...

Control would fail, today or tomorrow... Empowerment succeeds always.

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How do I learn "How to Fail?"

One drawback of my entire career has been that "NOBODY TAUGHT me to FAIL" Yes nobody taught me how to fail, like several others I learnt it on my own... some say it is great, you get your experience "hard way", some say "that's life".. I always felt and wanted to know if there was a way to learn how to fail... Its very important to know this as we keep on failing in our own way and that too in an untrained way...

So for those curious minds in there who are looking with a cross eye and for those of you who think that why in the age of "Learning Success" somebody wants to learn "How to Fail". Here is why I feel so:

Years ago when I founded TechShepherds, there was a vision "Success". Years later when I defounded TechShepherds ( around 2 years later) I realised that I was late to fail. Those days were the most painful days, because you stopped your company for whatsoever reason but there was a label of Failure, There was some money gone and there was a credibility that was at stake. Years later I worked for a company that spent millions and millions to work on a product, they spent years before they realised that it was time for them to scrap it as they were too late. In other words they were slow to fail?

Now you get the point!!!!! Yes it is important you know how to fail, if you know how you would decide when... I had a friend who co-founded a company 2 years ago, he went ahead with his partners and a investment of $20K to start working on a product... they built a Rocket in terms of the work they were doing.. a social network with enterprise base... They spent 3 months before they realised that the idea was too old and not fit for the market... they changed the product to move away from Enterprise Social network to a Local Social network. Result they saved the troubles to build and sell something that they saw was moving towards an end. In other words they saved a few hundreds of Bucks, They saved some partners and some money of Investors...

So how to find out that you will fail and then decide to fail fast?

1. You are working against a force that is well equipped financially, technically and in terms of value drive.

2. Things are no longer the way they used to be. You are in the 60's and the world has moved to 2010. Markets have changed, people too.

3. You can grow but your growth can never be of 200% for a period longer and consistent.

4. You are depending too much on your ideas without exploring debates , discussions and suggestions from outside world.

5. You dont like new Ideas anymore

6. Your Product is not improvising anymore...

Wait a while... Review yourself.. Identify the Failure that is coming to you... And Fail...

Yes Fail. So that you can take the lessons and improve, but at the same time you avoid making blunders...Earlier you know about the failure, earlier you learn and earlier you improve... In other words you learn how to fail... In a way that will help you and others with you...

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What Problem are we solving here?

A few years ago when a developer was requested to build a feature or a module he would be worried about the content of the document that came in to him as Requirement Specification document. Things changed… with the running market he started worrying about the time, scope and quality of the feature. Are we moving so fast that now the developer’s have to worry about the eligibility of the feature? Yes indeed… I was asked a question 2 times once by my 6 year old when I was trying to fix his pedal scooter and next by a developer who was about to work on one of the important features in the Product that I am working on.

The question was simple “What are we trying to solve here?” Answer most complex…When @aranhas07 started working on his product for Social Intuition, He had a problem each one of us face in the social world in mind… but when I look back and forth I see tones of products made every day making news on @Scobleizer and @Techmeme or @mashable I don’t really understand if they really are there to Solve a problem or to create one?

Do we answer this question before we start working on something important or so called important thing? Well the answer is NO it is thought but perceptional.. Yes one entity’s perception make him think that this is a problem and then a solution is designed around it... In process others really miss what is much needed or required... We spend millions and millions solving a problem which actually is not a problem…

Talk about the Iraq war (No WMD’s were ever recovered) or talk about the appointment of a bowling coach that got Indian team in a big mess a while ago. As Managers we always plan a lot of work.. but in process we plan work that comes through perseverance or perception. You let your teams spent millions and years on something that probably is not a problem but you are trying to solve it.

Once a sales consultant for a leading product made a big comment on the salability of a product saying since this product doesn’t allow robustness in letting multiple users connect to the system at the same time this product needs a big change as all the customers are asking for the said feature… The team went on creating a plan and effort and finally spent millions before a new developer got in and who asked... why are we building all of this? Can we not make the login web driven and leave other things on the rich interface? A management review was done and solution brutualized…

Next time when you begin to spend your important time on something don’t hesitate to ask these questions to yourself, your stake holders, your Managers, your CEO’s... For one thing can come out of it that they may not know what problem they are trying to solve…

The next few questions can actually help you work towards a solution than an issue..
1. What is the Problem?
2. Who faces it?
3. What are the workarounds?
4. What are the options available?
5. What can we do to make the solution generic?
6. Is the cost worth building a solution?
7. What are various options in the solutions?

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Team Engagement - 10 ways to get loved by your Team - 3/10 Inspire Them

Sachin Tendulkar the legendary cricketer was inspired by Kapil Dev the Indian cricket Team captain who won the 1983 world cup for India, this was when he was just learning to walk. Behind every legendary man/women there is a short inspiring story, this story plays a crucial role in the lives of these legends and thus make them legendary.

Your team always look at you with very high regards, yes they idealise you, they see you as their inspiration.. no matter what you do when you begin with your team, you begin as a inspirational part of their lives. However busy in the day to day routines you forget to inspire them in spite of being inspirational...Every Team member is like a hot iron rod if several other iron rods put pressure on it, it may not take the right shape, but when the hammer puts force it may(The hammer has to take care that it applies the right pressure and not force). And surely if the iron bar takes the right shape, it is going to love you for it....

Every member of your Team holds some exclusive quality within, if you can find that out and give way to it so the team member can do something of it, is he not going to love you for helping him expose and liberate his talent? There are different ways to inspire... Some people let others do what they want to others do things that can inspire else do it too. Everything and anything that you or your team does can inspire one or the other member of your team, you just have to use the right way to present it...

A few ways to inspire your teams:

I always think there is active inspiring and passive inspiring

Active inspiring

1. If you have found something very interesting or innovative on the web world

a. Speak about it in front of your teams

b. Tell them the benefits , usage and some good points of it

c. Show them how to use it, how you use it

d. Promote to get it used

e. Ask them ideas on how it can help the teams

2. If you know certain talents of your team members

a. Speak about those topics with them

b. Discuss pros and cons with them

c. Discuss legends, stories , success stories of people in the area of interest

d. Refer them to sites, people who you know in the same field

e. Share experiences

3. Creating a forum and debating on the topics of like

a. Create a forum where a lot of people can come together and discuss things. This will help your teams take a deeper dive into things

Inspiring Passively

1. Put a note or a symbol that can be seen.. Knowing some of the developers who were interested in blogging I made a point that I put my IM status message to my blog link, only later I realised that with every change in the status I had majority of them visiting the link. You don’t need to speak, if they are interested they will find a way to do it.

2. Create curiosity by not talking much about it.. sometimes less talking does more thinking.. speak once about it and let others to explore

3. Let them overhear – When the topics of discussion are interesting to others.. let them overhear.. they will go back and find details about it, would go and take it more further.

Yes.. Inspiring your team is something you would want to do.. Because if you can inspire them, you will find that they can do more then just getting inspired.. In turn to bring some good to them, they are going to love you.

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Keep up the Bad work!!!!

How does it sound? Annoying? Well isnt that the real truth? You keep on saying this to your team member even when he is at worst of his performance... dont care for what reasons? Well the truth is out of fear of loosing, causing revolt , constraints around resources etc etc you tend to do this... you go back with a feedback to your engineer and tell him "Look mate, you are doing OK, but you have a lot to improve on" I revised this statement in a simpler way and made it "Keep up the bad work!" .

For an under performer anything that is not direct or straight is like saying "Keep up the bad work mate". As Managers it will be your duty to make and build the communication in a way that says "It's enough of beating around the bush, time for you to respond", Again based on the nature and call and time and nth event of the feedback you can lighten up the statement, but in the end you have to help your under performer friend to boost it up.

We all want to make it sound positive, but not flattery... Tom was a project Manager dealing with Max who had been under performing in spite of last few months of support and attempts made by Tom and Team to get the issues with Max's ability sorted... when the options started reducing Tom had to go and open a communication which will help Max understand that the water has just hit the deck... Tom ran through the profile of Max and saw that he as a Formula 1 follower... took an opportunity on a one on one lunch and had this conversation...

This will hopefully enlighten you to make a easy conversation with your under performing member.

Tom "So, I learn that you are a Formula 1 fan"

Max "Yes, I a great fan"

Tom "So how does a normal F-1 race works"

Max "blah blah blah...... and thats how"

Tom "And how does a driver get in?"

Max "Its touch, but you need xx,yy zzzzzz blah blah, and this is how the points and ratings work for the Team and individuals"

Tom "Ahhh.. So the points for running a championship is also relational to individual driver performing?

Max "Yes"

Tom " And what happens if say Ferrari Team who is leading the championship has a Minus Schumacher"

Max "They fall back"

Tom "So how do you see yourself in this Team?"

Max takes time, thinks over it.. replies back "I think I have to change!!!"

Tom "OK, so lets get our driving gears, define a race path, lets target steps 1 to X until the pole position. Lets work on your car and gears and see how it works for your next race?"

An easy conversation goes well, without defences and grudges. Max realise the point and wants to seek help to do what would be best for the Team. A few races later Max is up to the speed.

But if the same conversation had gone in a way where Tom says "You are racing well, you need to win now" would have maybe not gone well... and Max would have continued with what he had being doing...

So next time you have an under performer in your Team... work out a best story, his likings and hobbies along with a statement that will make it clear for him that the feedback is counting and you dont and you never say "Keep up the bad work!!!!"

You can follow me on Twitter at sameera_cmc

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Confessions of a frustrated soul!!!

My weekend was rather dramatic this time.. a few movies, some time resting and a slip in nature's arm... I kind of enjoyed the whole weekend.. and while I was enjoying my weekend, I watched a funny movie "Confessions" based on a so called true story the movie rotated around a bunch of frustrated souls and their journey towards "do nothing". While I kept wondering why "Do Nothing Attitude" so prevailing in the society I was encountered by a fellow neighbor who discussed "Frustration" with me...

Frustration about how "People bother you when you are on Holidays" , "How not hire good guys" "how show off" "how show attitude" "how do buttering to get promoted" blah blah blah.... As a good listener I listened and explained a few good things about how not to get involved in such situations.... and as an answer to the issue.. I raised a few questions to myself...

Why do we intelligent souls get frustrated?

Answer was kind of tricky... and kind of easy... I decided to use my part of the weekend to get the answer... here is what I found...

1. I asked 12 people into different professions, different types of domains... they all gave different reasons here is my list :

1. 5 said Competition @work

2. 5 said Too much work

3. 1 said Inability to cope up things

4. 1 said Success of others

The last 2 were very honest and I promised them I wont disclose any names here... but as you see the top reason seems to be competition, it links directly to work.... the moment things dont go our way, we go frustrated. And when we get frustrated it affects major parts of our lives... A student reacts to an angry professor by saying "Must have had a fight with wife?"

Father angry with Boss goes home and slams kids?

Here are a few more statements that came out of the discussions I had ...

"Well frustrations dont limit me to work... I feel like bashing my neighbors dog who barks in the night"

"I find it hard, but sometimes even your closest friend is not the answer... you just want to bang your head"

Eventually Frustration is a killer... it kills mind, focus, brains, attitude, approach and last but not the least... "Future"

So how do we handle Frustration? I went through Google and except one or 2 good links, I did not find anything to read on...Hence decided to put my next blog on How to tackle Frustration?

Keep connected...

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How much Rework you have to do?

I have been closely monitoring and also involved in the current project that we have being working on. When I say closely I really mean closely. In the last few Iterations I have being harassed by the fact called rework in the development that we begin on August 17th and 6 months from then.. I see that we have spent a considerable amount of work trying to avoid rework.. yet rework is inevitable.

We as a Team recently decided to run a check on the reasons for rework, this was due to the fact that the Team has being talking about refactoring within a month of development of the item. As a manager any type of rework is a time waste. When people moved to the lean principles the core objective was to eliminate waste (in other words rework).

We decided to find the root cause of rework... and here is what I found... maybe interesting if you have a Team doing a considerable amount of development....some of these elements if taken care can really really help you eliminate some waste... a lesson for future a learning from past....

1. Understanding

50% of the rework is caused due to the fact that the developer does not understand what he has to do and he ends up jumping into the feature development. A big job here is to involve the developer in the upfront understanding of the feature and system. Not only it is associated with the developer but analysts also tend to write use cases without fully understanding a feature... result is rework after some amount of development is done.

A timely feedback and understanding of the features can help a developer build a right feature with minimum amount of rework.

2. Test Driven Approach

How many of your developers after completing the features run a test script written by the QA , Analysts? It is important that the developer approves every Acceptance Test , every negative test before he calls in the feature as done from development. A test driven approach is not just for feature but also for the code... A peer review can ensure the facts covered or uncovered by the piece of code written.

3. Break up and Build up of Tasks

4 out of 10 developers break up tasks out of a feature... I haven't seen any building a task out of features... a micro view is what a developer build out of a feature they work on... how beneficial it will be if you build a macro view of combination of features? Well the Architect and Managers have architectural views at higher level.. but if you understand the fact that what other features may need you may avoid duplicate work or rework.

4. Refactoring Yes , Reorganizing NO

Give time to your developers when they write code... not to let them re-organize what they deliberately left out or to cover what they did not finish.. but to reform the code in a better way. If your developer comes to you the next day after he finished a feature asking for a refactoring time, he has messed it up.. and the refactoring time is not the quality time.. its the development time.. he is running short on estimates.

Clearly define refactoring time.. and that is not development or bug fixing time.

5. workarounds vs Driveways

Developers always tend to bring workarounds as permanent solutions... they think from a granular perspective... train your teams to answer a few WHY... when they ask or suggest a solution?

Questions like :

Why this has to be done?

Why can it be not done later?

Why it was not done earlier?

Why this time?

Agile Teams eliminate the rework element to a bigger extend.. Agile Test Driven Teams eliminate it a very large extent. Agile behavioral development Teams can eliminate the larger chunk too... but yet Agile Teams too have to put rework. The project plans have to consider this fact and build an expectation accordingly. As a manager it is our job to ensure that we consider a few of the above elements and avoid some rework.. after all it is boring, time consuming and unpleasantly wasted.

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We all suck at Feedbacks - Part 3.1/4 - How to give Feedback that can be unpleasant

The beauty of this word starting with F (Feedback) is you cannot start it with a F word.This part of the statement is the most tricky and sensitive. All the time in Managers life he has to give negative feedback to everyone.. honestly it is not negative feedback it is the feedback that will not be pleasant to hear... A Call centre manager is walking by and hears a angry Customer Service representative blasting the customer or agitating the customer... the next thing he does is blasts the CS representative immediately after the call... what good does it do to him ? the Team?.

I went to a shopping mall last weekend, While my wife did all the shopping part I took a seat in the corner watching people, I saw a old lady looking for a bed linen where a sales rep was helping her. The sales rep initially showed interest, but when he saw her not being able to make a decision got agitated and reacted a bit rudely. His supervisor was watching all this and he stepped in had a chat pleasantly with the lady and tried to bring the lady to consensus and sold the work she was looking for. After the lady was gone he smiled at the rep and told him... "We will always have bad customers, they will come buy and go. What will remain is the reputation we hold. Now next time you get an angry/painful customer like this think that she is your childhood crush you never got a chance with.. I am sure you will serve better"

Inspiring... I liked the innovative way of feedback... What I liked about it was it had patience, place , perfection and politeness. Those P's that can make the F' better.

So what is it that we have to take care while we give a negative or not so pleasant feedback?

1. Place it well

Yes the place acts very important in the feedback sessions, specially when it is unpleasant... no one in the world wants to listen bad things about himself, secondly not in front of others. Make sure that when you have to give a feedback, give it in a private place.. it should be between those 2 souls and no one else. Find a right place to let the person know about the unpleasant things... so even if it gets worse it remains in there.

2. Point it well

Its very important to point it well. Again I prefer taking a profile book of incidents to support the unpleasant thing. You cannot just go and say "You miss all deliveries" you have to mention which item, which specific delivery and when. Be very specific to point on what you think about the incident too. This will help the person get your perspective about it...

A Manager once gave a feedback to his subordinate "The Management thinks that you are not capable or ready yet to take up this role" The guy went back, tried to figure out why , when , how asked the same questions to the manager.. he did not get an answer he Quit... if the feedback is not specific it is a disaster.

3. No place to emotions

Your emotions have no place in the feedback part. There is nothing worse than a angry, agitated, shouting and yelling manager giving a feedback. Be calm while you speak the feedback. Remember after all it is all about improvement.

4. Person is not the key, Action is

Feedbacks can get personal, A manager not happy about the attitude of the employee can take it personally while giving the feedback. He may pour only the personal perception and leave the public perception of the employee in due course. Ensure that when feedback is given it is given about actions and not person. Its ugly when a Manager says "You are not committed to the task" than he saying "We find you committed always, but for this particular task you missed the nerve"

5. Time it well

Run it instant. This will help you discuss the feedback more effectively. Any delay in giving a feedback on a unpleasant or negative action may turn disastrous in long run. Try and provide a quick if required short feedback but instantly for unpleasant actions.

6. Define actions

If it is the first time about something make sure you list down action items from the feedback. Try to create a check list and summarize and agree upon the actions when you close the feedback. If it is a repeated item on feedback then document it and make the consequences clear.. Yes politely. A developer who was a cricket fan was somehow not able to get hold of the pressure in development. Technically good he was still struggling with some or the other items.. after repetitive instructions the developer was not able to perform well when the Manager gave him a message "If you are a captain of the cricket Team, what will you do if some player consistently does not score? and while others are sitting on the bench to play the game? " He got the message and he listed down the actions he would work on.

7. Speak, Wait , Listen , Speak

Speak and wait to listen what other person have to say about it. At times ask the person to speak about it. Try to get a valuable input out. make it as a discussion not a lecture.

8. Trust

Build trust by re-emphasising that your faith still lies and you would want to get better results out of the actions defined. If you show your trust , it goes well.

9. Finish it there and follow it later

End it well. Try to emphasize on the objectives and make sure that you leave the feedback there. The items discussed in the feedback should not be discussed , just the action items derived should be followed up. keeping things about feedback in mind may cause unhealthy expectations and cold wars.

Of all these things.. remember you can use your sense of humour to give the unpleasant feedback wrapped in a pack of jokes and humor.

Dont forget that the objective of the feedback is to re-achieve well what we could not do for any reasons. We as managers have to make sure that when we come out of a discussion where the feedback about someone , something was unpleasant we have a plan to make it better.

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We all suck at Feedbacks - Part 2/4 . The Reaction

Continuing with our series on Feedback from the previous post we went through how to accept feedback. What is important is the reaction to the feedback. Many of us after accepting feedback don’t know what to do and how to do it... Here are a few things that may help you post receiving a feedback.

1. You asked for it, you got it so don’t crib

Feedback usually comes as a periodic output of an expectation. Usually the receiver of the feedback is the one who asks for it. Objective is very clear “How can I do well? Better? More?” Now the human nature doesn’t let us listen to criticism that easily. You always see a complain box in front of a government office, asking for feedback. I for fun once put a note in it criticizing the way the work was carried in that department. Next the “complain/feedback box” was removed. The common ways the feedback's are reacted are:

a. Ignore – By not listening, thinking or understanding the objective of it.

b. Over react - Thinking it is personal

c. Quit – Trying to run away from the feedback or the person giving it

d. Defend – for things that you clearly need to work on

We sometimes forget it was us who asked for the feedback....

2. Your body language speaks more than your words

During one of the feedback session while the Manager was giving the “Knowledge Doses” to the employee the employee kept looking at the pictures in the office, at the marriage ring of the Manager, at the laptop screen.

Once a Manager was giving criticism lessons of how a call centre executive should handle angry customers, the CS executive begged to differ and started arguing on every incident recorded, made faces and finally walked out.

An employee listened to the Boss , took the feedback, positively went out of the office onto his desk and with full fury started throwing things haywire, unlucky enough that the Boss walked right behind him to tell him that his promotion anyways is due that month ;)

An eye to eye contact, a sincere attention to the speaker, a calm body, a smiling face trying to adapt to the situation is a good foundation to the constructive feedback and professional career. During and after the feedback a sensible way to react is to try and list down what needs to be done.

3. Defence is the best offence, but only if you know what you defend

Every time we receive criticism we try to defend.. if the Boss says “You could have done this better” you say “Yes but that’s because you had X, Y and Z problems”. Your boss says “You should have done it this way” you return “No, this is how I was told to do“ blah blah. Defence is good, but only if you know what you are defending. A defensive approach during feedback is the offensive approach... it lets you go away from the core objectives. Never take a defensive step, listen adapt figure out what to do.

4. It’s all about perception?

Feedback is nothing but a summary of the personal and public perceptions. Your Boss’s opinion based on his perception considering your personal approach and how people see it. You may be doing all the right things but they may not be the rightest one in other people’s opinion. It’s about perceptions. The best way to handle this part of the feedback reaction is to read and not the perceptions and list down how you can improve them.

5. Your feedback is not to prove but perceive

The best thing to do after a feedback is to not prove that someone is right and someone is wrong. It is to perceive and not prove. I remember an incident that happened today. We asked one of our customers in a meeting about their feedback about our web application, the customer was honest and frank and he said “It is very slow”, The first thing that came from a developer sitting by my side was “It may be the browser, internet connection, etc etc.” We chose to say that we would like to check the same thing and get back to you. The right thing to do this is to summarize the feedback items and from time to time go back to your Manager and tell him on what you have worked on and what you are working on.

6. Mr. Good boy or Mr Grumpy?

Arrogant or Grumpy will never get you feedback again. Keep the attitude to yourself.

As much as feedback is important in our path to learn and grow it is similarly important that you react with the spirit of feedback. Remember the feedback is given to let you improve, learn and grow.

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We all Suck at Feedbacks - Part 1 / 4 How to take it?

A few weeks ago it was my time to throw back some feedback to the Team, some of the Team members and of course myself. We as a Team always believed in constructive feedback. A feedback that will help Team members improve. Ideally feedback is meant to be given to improve, but the intention is usually not mutually accepted. Not that the they are agreed upon or disagreed, but feedbacks dont go in the order and form they are supposed to go due to communication or understanding.

I decided to put up this series that comes exactly in line of time when I am supposed to do a Annual review for the Team. Though as a Team we have been sharing feedback very often, A annual feedback is the time that determines a glossary of the last few shares of feedback, summarized and polished and hopefully effectively communicated.

I remember the "Appraisal Meetings" I have undergone and here I write how a typical feedback/appraisal session goes. The employee goes in a room with a document filled where he rates himself between 1-5 for items like Communication skills, Effectiveness, Technical strengths, deliveries, quality etc. he chooses to put 5 on every item his eye can see and his Manager sitting in is sitting there with an intention to cut down that 5 to 2 or 3 or maximum 4 even if he is not, he is in mind of the employee. After the meeting is over the employee goes out sits beside his colleague or go out for a Coffee and utter this "He is an A**Hole, A donkey can be a better Manager than him" blah blah blah... both of them agree and the guy who just went for a coffee is prepared to enter the same room...Conclusion of the meeting is that the employee thinks he is not getting a promotion or a hike, because the Manager blamed him for everything he did in the past. He is going to update his resume as soon as he goes out.

Well the cause of the above scene maybe anything... but one thing is for sure. The later part of the scenario is more driven because the feedback is not accepted with the same intention as it is given. Now let’s pick the most mature person in the Team, with the best attitude, with the best track record and give him a feedback constructive or non constructive. There is a lot of defence on everything said. Do we know why? Do employees think that a feedback session is a War? Do employees and Managers not share the correct wave length? Well the answers differ... but of all these elements there is definitely 1 major issue which causes a lot of questions we raised above... WE DONT KNOW HOW TO TAKE or RECEIVE FEEDBACK... Yes we don’t know... So let’s take a few tips on how to take feedback:

If you want to receive it first “Be Prepared” for it

Many of us don’t self evaluate before they get into feedback sessions. This causes a lot of trouble when you are in a feedback meeting. It’s very important that you as a feedback receiver are aware of all the points that relates to your feedback. I went to a feedback session where a Developer working on 2 of the last 3 projects in the last few weeks was able to start the project well, but never took care to finish it. When we reached a point to discuss the projects, the developer went defensive and did not want to discuss the projects at all forgetting the fact that the projects or points coming out of the feedback session were a part of the feedback. Eventually this was caused as the developer was not prepared to take the project feedback. Ideally a few days before the feedback session it is important that we go and review ourselves with a yard stick that is stricter than the one of the Manager.

God gave you ears to listen, both Good and Bad things

We are not used to listen. When somebody speaks we want to cut him off. If he speaks bad about us then we don’t want the person to even start. We so much want to listen only Good things about ourselves that when it comes to some unpleasant set of items, we don’t want to listen it. We say that Managers biggest weapon are his listening skills, but I say that anyone’s biggest weapon can be his listening skills. If you can listen to criticism you can survive. Listening quietly and noting the feedback items on a paper will help you review things for yourself after the feedback is given.

Boss is always (R)ight

He may not be always right. But that doesn’t mean that after the feedback we have to prove how wrong he is. Usually after any feedback session you would see the employee who received the feedback discuss things with colleagues. Honestly these sessions are usually driven towards how the employee is right and how the Manager is not. This can cause some level of discomfort both for you and the Manager.

I want to!!!!

The objective of feedbacks is to let the employee know what he is good at and what he needs to work on. Listen on what improvements are coming out of the discussions and be ready to accommodate the improvements. When the Indian cricket captain Dhoni always had a motive on the pitch that would drive him to go and hit and score as fast as he could, there were 2 reasons to it.. 1 patience and another the number at which he was playing... even being a captain he was once asked by a Sr. Member of the Team to play up the order and keep calm... he started by accepting this in an interview and changed to keep cool head on the wicket... when he was able to get this working he changed his order and started coming up the order. Result? He scored more runs and played more longer innings.

In your feedback sessions show an attitude that you want to work on things.

I need help!!!

A lot of people cannot accept the feedback, or cannot accept the improvements coming out of feedback sessions. It may be due to various reasons...yet these people are not able to ask for what help they need to work on the improvements or to perform better.

In my second job we had a lady in our Team who played a Team lead, who would start to work at 10 and finish at 4. She was not available for tele-calls post work hours, nor she would be able to work on something post work hours even if it was urgent. Our Manager who was a workalcoholic somehow could not like the fact that she was not able to support in emergencies. He shared the feedback a couple of times and asked the lady to be available to the Team in emergencies. The lady resigned in a few days. Only later we came to know that the lady was suffering from a slip-disk and had physiotherapist appointment at 4:30 every day.

Ask for help if the feedback demands something from you and you think you can’t do it without certain help.

Get or Die is not the case

A lot of guys get defensive in feedback sessions that because they could not get something or because someone was not working well they could not do what they were meant to do. Some also go to a stage saying they need X, Y and Z and only then they can consider achieving the feedback. Remember feedback is given to not receive back excuses or demands.. they are given to help you do better... so never let demands or complains make the feedback sessions... have a separate forum for that.

Finally feedback is not personal; it is a part of you that needs professional acceleration... so accept it with some spirit and work on it

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Nandan Nilekani's first day in Parliament - Of Culture's and Dress Code

I read this today after some of my friends tweeted around it that said Nandan Nilekani's first day in parliament... For those of you who are unaware of who this person is and why he is on my post please refer here , here and here...

The whole post is nice for some reasons and not very inspiring to me for others.. A Technocrat when travels to be a Cabinet Minister it inspires me on my way to get into politics sometime in my life… if not for changing the world at least helping my hand in changing India.. What disturbed me in the post is listed below as mentioned in the write-up:

“It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!! I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favorite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”.

Though I would treat “attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit” to be as attired in a less flashy suit… How many of Indians do think that if a politician is wearing a Khadi, he is as genuine as Gandhiji? Or how many of Indians feel that being a politician you are working for improvement of lower class only? OK forget what others think and feel… As self do you think if you don’t wear attire that suite what our minister called “austere” you would do less? And then have the dress that is designed by some famous designer for money that can be used to feed hundreds of poor Indians for a few years? Amazing isn’t it? Anyways my point is not to criticize what Mr. Nilekani wrote…instead to point the RULE that asks people to wear specific attire for reasons “unreasonable”

Dress Code’s… I think they are nice to have but to determine the minimum code rules that need to be followed with dressing in different places… I would imagine a dress code to be followed when you represent your company, organization or country with those extended others who you call clients, customers, vendors, diplomats or other nation’s representatives… You need to be wearing reasonable attire that can keep up to the reputation of your organization. Does enforcing dress code means that people really refer to the dress code and the moral behind it? BTW what is the exact reason to have dress code? I know that in some BPO’s and companies’ people are asked to be “Formally dressed” which means that a formal attire that doesn’t say that you are partying while at office or you just returned back from a disco.

There was a lot of fiasco when Sania Mirza and another tennis player wore casuals in the Beijing Olympics parade … read more about it here and people crumbled and cribbed about culture and attire ethics not followed… but what if somebody chooses to follow the dress code and find runaways to the clauses? Eventually Mandira Bedi Saree controversy cannot be easily forgotten… read here …

So over and over.. here is my view on dress code’s
Dress code’s needs to be event based.
Dress code need to determine what you cannot wear and not what you should wear.
Dress code should be based on profession and the type of work people do.
Dress code should be not to enforce people to buy new things or wear things they are not comfortable with.
In other words
Dress code should be replaced with a plain guideline to not be very casually dressed and leave the mature people who represent our teams, organization, cultures, states and nations to decide what best attire can represent it.

Your views….

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