Friday 17 April 2015

Start with Why: Next Natural Step


Once the soul is written, the next natural step is to anoint the team. For this, I recommend to 'Start with Why' ~ Simon Sinek (https://www.startwithwhy.com/) of The Golden Circle fame. Here is his TED Talk : How great leaders inspire action http://go.ted.com/bb6g

I use 'The Golden Circle' from Start with Why (ISBN-13: 978-1591846444) to set perimeter on my efforts to build high performance, for the inception of excellence and to naturally align all around in the discipline of getting things done. Here I strongly recommend Execution: The discipline of getting things done ~  Lawrence Bossidy and Ram Charan (ISBN-13: 978-0609610572).

As leader one must be able to inspire people to act. Quoting Simon, "The golden circle finds order and predictability in human behavior. Put simply, it helps us understand why we do what we do. It’s for the leader (the Senior Manager) to be the guardian of this Why, enabling the team to align and bond around that belief."

This human quest of being curious is the key. Everyone on the team is curious - curious to know why they are there, what are they suppose to do, how it is to be done, where is the goal, how big is the reward, why is the purpose.

This is how I apply the principle:

I Connect with each and every individual on my team,

I Communicate with passion, with enthusiasm - the reason, I answer their WHYs, I answer why it is so important deliver excellence, what are our differentiators, and how to achieve them. I tell them "It's not luck (yes, I am referring to E. M Goldratt - I recommend to read both The Goal & It's not luck whenever you are missing the link in that Critical Chain.)."

I Cross-train staff to open them up to newer advanced tools, processes and technologies.

I Cultivate values, trust, energy in them.

I Conclude achievements and

I Celebrate with everyone on the floor.

Always remember and use these 6 C's to create your team viz Connect, Communicate, Cross-train, Cultivate, Conclude and Celebrate.

As a leader do not just sign off on a plan. Always ask an explanation, and drill down until the answers are clear on execution.

Quoting Execution - "Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work. Good judgments come from practice and experience". The building blocks of execution culture are defined with utmost clarity by Ram & Lawrence. I am quoting them as follows:

  • Know your people and your business: Show up & connect personally. Show up on conference calls, prefer video (skype, gtalk, OCS etc.), Listen first & Talk next.
  • Insist of realism: Regularly do SWOT Analysis - with Direct Reports, Skip-levels, be it Directors, Sr. Managers, Technical Team. Introduce these tools to your ground work-force (even Band X/Zero)
  •  Set clear goals and priorities: Involve people, focus on max 4 priorities, always set time-bound goals. Set measurement scale. Speak Simple.
  • Follow through: Take a walk, wander around, see your people on the floor, walk across the assembly line, take clues from MBWA - Management by Wandering Around (Tom Peters). Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1ZWvtX_ZM Narrative: http://tompeters.com/blogs/toms_videos/docs/Excellence_MBWA.pdf .
  • Reward the doers: Always reward in public with applause. Speak with passion about the good work and how it adds to the discipline.
  • Expand people’s capabilities: Carefully choose people on the team, craft the structure and invest to build capabilities. Provide a fertile environment and people will grow. Encourage tools like wiki to share and collaborate. Induce automation for mundane tasks.
  • Know yourself: This is of utmost importance. Teams you build, culture you establish, achievements you make are all replica of yourself. Be-Aware - it's the first life-skill. Refer to my blog: http://hirdug.blogspot.in/2012/05/life-skill-1-be-aware-be-aware-now.html. Be Authentic & contain your ego.
Establishing high performance, building a culture of execution, driving excellence is always done with people. 

Thus, 
Be Human...Always

You can follow me on twitter: @hirdug 

This post was first published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-why-next-natural-step-hirdesh-gupta

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Top 10 TED Talks on my index


 Quite recently, I became aware of TED talks and soon my mornings began to start afresh with a TED Talk. Today morning at 6 a.m, I finished watching 200th TED Talk. This is when I thought of indexing.  Here is my index of top 10 TED Talks :).

These are the ones, that have influenced my consciousness & my thought process in big way. In future post, I will talk more on these talks and many other TED talks that keep influencing me and many other. Till then, visit www.ted.com and enjoy the joy of listening to great talks and presenters.


1. Sir Ken Robinson  How schools kill creativity http://go.ted.com/bb6R

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. 

In his words "kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes."

2. Shawn Achor : The happy secret to better work  http://go.ted.com/bb6j

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.


3. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action http://go.ted.com/bb6g

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers. Simon is an immensely passionate speaker. I use his "Golden Circle" to build my  strongly knitted team.



4. Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend -   - http://go.ted.com/bb6K

Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.

5. Amy Cuddy:  Your body language shapes who you are http://go.ted.com/bb6W

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.

6. Susan Cain:  The power of introverts http://go.ted.com/bb6q

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.



7. Guy Kawasaki  The art of innovation:  http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-art-of-innovation-Guy-Kawas

Guy Kawasaki is a special advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google. He is also the author of APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. In Top 10 format talk he talks in detail on art of innovation through very interesting frame. Hugely passionate talk keeps you bound. "Great Products polarize people & Perfect your Pitch"

 8. Richard St. John : 8 secrets of success  http://go.ted.com/bbE9
 
Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.


9. Angela Lee Duckworth:  The key to success? Grit  http://go.ted.com/bbLx

Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.


10. Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory http://go.ted.com/bbLe

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy — and our own self-awareness

Step Zero: Writing the Soul of your own High Performance Team


Every time, I talk on building a high performance team, people are curious. And all want to know if there is an stone carved step by step guide to build on, or if there is a secret sauce at a store nearby they can buy and add to team, or what's the first step to begin with. On all these curious questions, more often than not I briefly smile, and I say, "There is no guide, no secret sauce or the first step, but there is Step Zero, and that's the biggest leap of faith one can take. The journey begins with actually writing the soul of your own High Performance Team."

The soul of your High Performance Team is true-copy of thyself, it's not a shadow (a darker shade which vanishes when times are dark) and it's also not a reflection (mirror images are vice-versa). One has to personally write the soul and publish to all the world around, for every one to acknowledge it's presence & bring it to life.

The soul of my High Performance Teams is written around the central idea to - "enjoy the joy of togetherness" and the "view" each individual has of another in the team.



Once the soul is written, rest is not Utopian to achieve. Publish the soul to each & every individual and frame all other expectations around it. Building a high performing team is different from carving a high performing leader, it is different from hive-mind thought process, it's collaborative incremental effort, bit like building each muscle in the body.

I have kept this post short on purpose to establish the simplicity & importance of writing the soul. In future post on the series, I will talk in detail on many other aspects of High Performance Team building methods (not sequential steps :) )

Couple of those are published in presentation at slide-share: Anthem - Raise the Bar  http://www.slideshare.net/HirdeshGupta/anthem-raise-the-bar



This post was first published on my LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/step-zero-writing-soul-your-own-high-performance-team-hirdesh-gupta