Upping The Music Ante

A seemingly innocuous entrant into the house.... and it's altered the energy at home, enough to make me write about it.

Sure I love my music, but it's always had it's space....... mostly in the car

And then, in came this little bluetooth speaker (little in only it's size...the volume it can create is no little), and suddenly there's more music in the house.....music in the garden, music in the shower, music in the balcony...... in fact in the kitchen, it can even evoke dancing  :)

I realized all over again how, not all good things in life come from a conscious want, and a decision. Some just happen, maybe from subconscious spaces ...at which times it's just about being open, discerning and receptive, and they're yours for the taking.

A quote from Sadhguru comes to mind:

Thanks Kiran...for the really thoughtful gift. You wanted twenty percent of the joy...I hope you're feeling lots of it :)

The Problem with Rewarding Individual Performers

Excerpts from an HBR write up by Jay Van Bavel

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team started one of the most cherished traditions in American sports.  After each game, the coaches would reward the best players with small stickers resembling buckeye leaves to place on their helmets. The staff reasoned that rewarding stellar individual performances would provide the right incentive to excel. The Buckeyes won the national championship that year, and football teams around the country have copied the tradition of rewarding individual excellence.

And then, the once-dominant Buckeyes slipped into mediocrity. When Jim Tressel was hired to coach the team, he completely revamped how players earned a buckeye. Instead of rewarding a player for scoring a touchdown, for instance, every player on the offensive unit would get a sticker if the team scored more than 24 points. Favoring teamwork over individual performance paid off almost immediately—the team not only won a national championship the following year, but the Buckeyes have been one of the most successful teams in the country ever since and are a threat to win the National Championship again this year.

Although leaders are concerned with collective success, most organizations—from sports teams to universities to global companies—still focus on rewarding individual performance.We believe that leaders are overlooking something fundamental about human nature—our tribalism.

Human beings evolved in groups, and most of us still work in groups every day. Our affinity for groups is wired deeply into our basic biology. Indeed, humans are unique among primates in that we readily cooperate with in-group members–even if they are completely unknown to us. This is why sports fans can show up to a stadium and immediately share common purpose with 100,000 complete strangers.  And our research has found that creating mixed-race groups can override implicit racial bias. Group identification is one ingredient that can bring strangers together.

Given that group membership is such a deeply rooted part of human nature and organizational success, a central element of leadership is the management of group identities. In short, great leaders are “entrepreneurs of identity.” This social relationship between leaders and followers is at the heart of transformational leadership.

When a person starts to identify with a group, it triggers a fundamental shift in their goals. Events and decisions that were once evaluated with reference to oneself (“what’s in it for me?”) are now evaluated in reference to the group (“what does this mean for us?”). 

To cultivate a strong group identity, leaders can take the following steps: (1) ensure the group satisfies basic the psychological needs of individual members, (2) generates super-ordinate goals, (3) rewards individual contributions to the group, and (4) values dissent.

Focus on employees’ social needs. Organizations traditionally use financial rewards to motivate employees, but great leaders also fulfill the social needs of their employees. 

Set superordinate goals. Recent neuroscience studies suggest that cooperation is inherently rewarding. But many people will only cooperate with fellow in-group members.  Visionary leaders communicate the superordinate goals of the organization and explain how all the divisions, departments, and project teams are necessary for achieving these goals.

Reward both collective and individual effort. Leaders need to reward behavior that advances the goals of the organization, rather than the individual.  To avoid free-riding (when team members shirk their personal responsibility), individual rewards should also be given to individuals who make important contributions to the team’s success. 

Group cohesion can also be a weakness—suppressing dissent and creativity, and creating mindless conformity. How can leaders capitalize on the benefits of group cohesion while avoiding its drawbacks?

Avoid the downsides of conformity by valuing dissent. Many people assume that dissenters are trying to damage the group. But our research suggests that committed group members are the ones who are most likely to speak up when things are going badly for the group because they care deeply about group success. Thus, constructive dissent needs to be explicitly valued in organizations to avoid groupthink and bad decision-making. Leaders need to make it easy for group members to speak out against bad ideas. 

The bottom line is that leaders need to understand and harness the tribal psychology that is deeply imprinted onto the human brain. The ease with which people categorize the social world into groups speaks to our nature, and provides a powerful potential tool for leaders. Our capacity to identify with groups provides the foundations for cooperation with others—even complete strangers. Thus, great leaders must become entrepreneurs of identity.

A Riot Of Colour

The Republic Day Flower Show at Lalbagh is an intrinsic part of the city's pride and tradition. A tradition that has been ongoing since 1812..... this year was the 205th edition.

It is so popular....... that living close to Lalbagh brings to mind 'all roads lead to Rome'

I feel it's like an allegiance to being Bangalorean..... and then it's not for nothing that Bangalore is called 'The Garden City', people do love their flowers here.

The show is said to have attracted a footfall of 4.5 lakh visitors in the four days that it was on, with wait time in the queue being anywhere between two to four hours, and what's more, people seem happy to wait, uncomplaining and patient. ( I did it at 6.30 in the morning, so didn't do no queue :).

Star attraction this year was the Gol Gumbaz, the historical dome at Bidar, replicated through four lakh roses.

Rest in pictures:

That's the glass house itself

The orchids were a special treat, for having been grown at the high altitudes of Darjeeling and Sikkim

The glass house lit....this one's courtesy Google
                                    

The phlox are a personal favorite, so saved them for the last
                                    

The color, the fragility and the beauty still linger in mind......happy to have done this before I moved out of Bangalore.

Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

An inspiring write up by John Coleman, from the Harvard Business Review

I recently worked my way through Edmund Morris’s first two Teddy Roosevelt biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. Roosevelt wasn’t without flaws, but he was by nearly all accounts fascinating and intellectually voracious. He published his first book, 'The Naval War of 1812', at 23 and continued to write on everything from conservation to politics and biography.

According to Morris, at certain periods he was rumored to read a book a day, and all this reading and writing arguably made him both charismatic and uniquely equipped to engage the host of topics he did as president: national conservation efforts, naval expansion, trust regulation, and a variety of others.

Roosevelt was what we might call a “lifetime learner.” Learning became, for him, a mode of personal enjoyment and a path to professional success. It’s a habit many of us would like to emulate. And apart from its utility, learning is fun. It’s a joy to engage a new topic. Having an array of interesting topics at your disposal when speaking to colleagues or friends can boost your confidence. And it’s fulfilling to finally understand a difficult new subject.

But this type of continuous and persistent learning isn’t merely a decision. It must become a habit. And as such, it requires careful cultivation.

First, developing a learning habit requires you to articulate the outcomes you’d like to achieve. In my own life, I like to maintain a reading program that exposes me to a variety of subjects and genres with the goal of general intellectual exploration, while also digging more deeply into a few areas, including education, foreign policy, and leadership. Picking one or two outcomes will allow you to set achievable goals to make the habit stick.

Based on those choices, set realistic goals. Like many people, each year, I set a series of goals for myself. These take the form of objectives I’d like to achieve over the course of the year (e.g., read 24 books in 2017) and daily or weekly habits I need to cultivate in accordance with those goals (e.g., read for more than 20 minutes five days per week). For me, long-term goals are tracked in a planner. Daily or weekly habits I monitor via an app called momentum, which allows me to quickly and simply enter completion of my habits on a daily basis and monitor adherence. These goals turn a vague desire to improve learning into a concrete set of actions.

With goals in hand, develop a learning community. I have a bimonthly book group that helps keep me on track for my reading goals and makes achieving them more fun. You might even consider a formal class or degree program to add depth to your exploration of a topic and the type of commitment that is inherently structured. These communities increase commitment and make learning more fun.

To focus on your objectives, ditch the distractions. Learning is fun, but it is also hard work. It’s so extraordinarily well documented as to be almost a truism at this point, but multitasking and particularly technology (e.g., cell phones, email) can make the deep concentration needed for real learning difficult or impossible. Set aside dedicated time for learning and minimize interruptions. When you read, find a quiet place, and leave your phone behind. If you’re taking a class or participating in a reading group, take handwritten notes, which improve retention and understanding, and leave laptops, mobiles devices, and other disrupting technologies in your car or bag far out of reach.

And apart from physically eliminating distractions, consider training your mind to deal with them. I’ve found a pleasant impact of regular meditation, for example, has been an improvement in my intellectual focus which has helped my attentiveness in lectures and ability to read difficult books.

Finally, where appropriate, use technology to supplement learning. While technology can be a distraction, it can also be used to dramatically aid a learning regimen. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow remote students to participate in community and learn from some of the world’s most brilliant people with the added commitment of class participation. 

Podcasts, audiobooks, e-readers, and other tools make it possible to have a book on hand almost any time. I’ve found, for example, that by using audiobooks in what I think of as “ambient moments” — commuting or running, for example — I can nearly double the books I read in a year. Combine these tools with apps that track your habits, and technology can be an essential component of a learning routine.

We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn. But the demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits — consciously established and conscientiously cultivated — can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness. Maybe Roosevelt had it right: a lifetime of learning can be a success in itself.

A Once In 100 Years Bloom

It's interesting how somethings acquire value based on sheer rarity (yep.....diamonds for sure :). One such is the Talipot Palm, which blooms once in a hundred years...... and it's now in bloom in Lalbagh.

This picture is courtesy The Hindu. 

                      

 and here's some excerpts from their article:

“This is the best natural gift for the Republic Day from Lalbagh. The rarity is in seeing three of them flowering concurrently as they bloom only once in a lifetime of 60 to 100 years, said M. Jagadeesh, Joint Director, Horticulture, Parks and Gardens, urging people to catch a glimpse of the trio-in-bloom spectacle, during the show. 

The talipot palms rise to a height of nearly 30 metres and have a girth of 2.5 metres. We should be grateful to the botanist trained in Kew gardens in London John Cameron — superintendent of Lalbagh who took over in 1874 and established the Glass House — who planted two palms initially, Seed dispersal led to their sprouting. We have been vigilant in seeing them grow as scientists have categorised them as ‘threatened species’, said Mr. Jagadeesh. 

The fronds of talipot palm have been historically used in India and Sri Lanka for writing manuscripts, according to Mr. Jagadeesh."

A thought which stood out for me; the palm was in spectacular bloom, over and above the heads of all other trees and plants in the vicinity.......blooming just for it's own joy and glory. And if we spotted it, it's only because of the article and the effort at seeking it out. 

And it so happened that it was a special day at Lalbagh, the very popular Republic Day flower show, yet another spectacular display, and that was display for the public, and was attracting all the public attention. Both as real......Both as significant........ Both as beautiful.

Girija, thanks much for having spotted the article in The Hindu, and what's more, actually come to do the walk with me yesterday, an almost as rare occurrence :)

Everyone is better than you are........

From Seth

Everyone is better than you are...

(at something). Which makes it imperative that you connect and ask for help.

At the same time that we encounter this humbling idea, we also need to acknowledge that you are better at something than anyone you meet.

Everyone you meet needs something you can do better than they can.

Rediscover The Day

Early this morning I got a notification on the phone, which read 'Rediscover The Day'

Out of curiosity, since it was the first time I was seeing it, and as it was from Google, I clicked (sucker for memories and old connects see).

It was just one line; 'Rediscover this day, two years ago...25th Jan '2015'. And it had this picture.

                          

It was a collage of five pictures taken on the day, two years back. It was done so beautifully, that it straight off transported me back to that day.....I was touched. 

It in fact delivered what it had enticed. It enabled a reconnect to the day, and it had been a lovely day...a day that Dhruva and I had decided to go sightseeing in Pune. So first off, it managed to touch a core space of time shared with my son.

Second off, it had picked the pictures so intuitively, that I couldn't have done a better job myself ( I had atleast forty pictures from the day).  It covered the river by his hostel,  Shaniwarwada, Dhruva, Gandhiji's room in Aga Khan palace, and Dhruva's college.

It felt so thoughtful, sensitive, and unintrusive, that I, who am allergy level averse to forwards, sent off the link to Dhruva. It had managed to create a moment that was share worthy. 

Just imagine, in two minutes, it enabled not just a reconnect for me, but also a connect between Dhruva and me.

It was a ' simply wow' experience. 

So much so, that when it popped the question of 'would you like this to be an added feature...'Yes, please or No, thanks'....I picked 'Yes, please'.

Way to go Google....love you that one notch more !!

The Energy Shifts

I'm a big one for lists. I have lists for everything. Can be as serious an issue as 'what courses do I want to do' ( the list would have started as a dump of ideas), or as frivolous as which songs do I want on my playlist (in the car write out favorites as the radio plays), or daily tasks, or weekly to do's, whatever.

This is my master doc which I open everyday, yes literally everyday ( as can be seen it has several sheets, including the daily, weekly...lists) . 

I recently gave pause on the title... my current doc was titled 'After SELCO'. This was a doc I'd created when I had begun having thoughts of quitting SELCO, it had started as my thinking tool and what had started over an year back, had just continued, with new sheets getting added.

And believe it or not until I started that one, the previous one which had lasted three whole years was called 'After Google'.

This New Years I got a feeling that there was something not right here. The titles seemed in some sense backward looking..... like they carried a sense of not letting go. Remember I open it everyday, and sometimes four times a day I'll look at it, I use it to open the doc and what I'm looking at by default is the title.

Was I in some sense holding on to the past.....to Google, to SELCO, whatever, even after I'd moved on. Was my mind needing a subconscious anchor....not fully letting go, not fully independent, not fully present.

I decided to make the shift. On New Years, I created a new doc '2017, What's New' , and trust me, it's after almost six years that I have a doc which doesn't read 'After....'.  It took a while, I'd type in the old name by default each morning. But now, it's been almost a month, and I've aligned.....a..n..d........I'm beginning to see more than just my doc change.

The structure of the doc changed....the outlook altered........ and now, I see the energy shift

My takeaway: Be very careful of those subtle energies around you. Well yes, NLP (neuro linguistic programming) if you please.  Either you lead them, or they lead you.

The Power Of Vulnerability

It's deep, powerful and beautiful.....

How Reading Awakens Us

Excerpts of a nice write up by Maria Popova:

Anaïs Nin on How Reading Awakens Us from the Slumber of Almost-Living 

                                   

Galileo believed that books are our only means of having superhuman powers. For Carl Sagan, a book was “proof that humans are capable of working magic.” Proust considered the end of a book’s wisdom the beginning of our own. For Mary Oliver, books did nothing less than save her life. 

A generation after Kafka wrote to his best friend that “a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us,” Anais Nin explores in a beautiful entry in 'The Diary of Anaïs Nin':

"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book (Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with [someone], and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death."

With a thankful eye to D.H. Lawrence — whose writing, she believed, first awakened her in this fashion and whom, in a gesture of gratitude, she made the subject of her first book — Nin adds:

"Some never awaken. They are like the people who go to sleep in the snow and never awaken. But I am not in danger because my home, my garden, my beautiful life do not lull me. I am aware of being in a beautiful prison, from which I can only escape by writing."

Interviews Enable......

Having done two interviews of my dad, and one of my mum ( which is half way through), I've realized that interviews, especially personal level interviews, are a huge enabling experience. And that holds for the interviewee and the interviewer.

                                     

How?

Well, first off......Questions make you think. Some questions make you think more. And if they're about you, you think even more....because you're dipping into not just memory, but your entire self, because there's high chance you haven't really articulated those thoughts before.

To answer questions like...what is your concept of happiness, what are some of your core attributes, what do you like to see in your friends, what about you would you like to change, would you want to be born again....by their very nature they evoke a level of introspection.  

Then again there are your answers which won't necessarily align with your behavior....your own answers which will surprise you....so more thinking. Do I have misaligned beliefs about myself...am I too harsh on myself...maybe I am after all different from what I believe ( we do tend to be pretty punishing on ourselves at times...or maybe even delusional :)

If you're really honest and put yourself out there, there's a good chance you will let go of some regrets. Why? Why does it take another to enable that. Because we've buried it so deep that we haven't revisited. And it's only when we specifically think about what we might regret, that we even acknowledge it, and then share it, and then realize you've long been ready to let go. (or maybe just dust and rebury too)

Then there are the answers which clarify things to others around, where close others get perspective on some deep beliefs and  spaces that the person is coming from.

And I think biggest of all, they help you reconnect into your past, into memories, and your memories are after all a storehouse of what you are. They make you. Reconnecting, is akin to reliving, and reliving cherished spaces is an experience that's beautiful in itself. We're so externally tuned, that we do little of internal viewing....interviews enable that as well.

Looks like I can go on ......but even this much is reason enough to inspire me into more interviews. All set !

Congrats Again Vishakha !

Yet another milestone moment. Vishakha got awarded the 'CA - Business Leader - Woman Award 2016'

Well, this time round I can no longer write about the story of how she did her CA, and how she used to disappear into her cubbyhole for the studying. 

Let me instead talk about yesterday....we did some discussing on the award being in the women's category...does it say anything, does it take away, does it add .  We figured it just is.

But on a more personal level, I think she does bring in a woman's perspective into business, a more tender and emotional hand, one that feels. And especially considering she's in the insurance business, I think it has potentially big impact. After all a significant percentage of women in the country still choose to be homemakers.

We've earlier times discussed how men see themselves as 'providers' that they approach insurance differently. Women on the other hand are split between those who provide for themselves and those who are provided for. This is reality, and she's woven this awareness into her approach itself.

Yesterdays discussion for instance...she was facilitating the writing of an article on 'managing finances at home', and in giving inputs she quite naturally included the 'time and energy of the woman, in clear unequivocal and quantified terms'. That, while seeming natural, is still a huge shift for many. Also something as obvious as asset ownership ....why is default still with the man...why not even joint ownership..but there it is, and that's the fundamental shift being enabled by women at the helm, and I can definitely talk for Vishakha here. 

The moment these facets come up, I know that the women's category is not just about recognizing a woman who has risen in a 'mans world', but also at a deeper level carries more weight, and has far reaching implications in enabling those subtle but deep shifts in society.

Way to go girl, proud of you !!!

Ok Jaanu

While the lead roles are Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur in a zippy, passionate and new age love story.....as significant are Naseeruddin Shah and Leela Samson in their mature, end of years, subtle love story. 

             

Adi is a game designer, set to immigrate to the US and Tara is an architect headed out for Paris. Both are no commitment, no marriage, no emotional attachment kinds....yet so into each other that they decide to live in for the six months they have, before they move on to pursuing respective careers.

They move into Gopi uncle's house (Naseeruddin Shah) , and that forms the powerful backdrop story. Charu aunty ( Leela Samson)  has Alzheimer's and that's touchingly and profoundly brought out. 

Needless to say, just days before the impending parting, the young lovers need to confront some matters of the heart.

I have to mention Humma Humma, as it's a song I must have listened to a hundred times back in its hey days...the days of the walkman. The duo made the screen sizzle to the number.

This is a remake of Mani Ratnam's Ok kanmani in Tamil and Ok bangaaram in telugu, and I understand it's pretty true to original. (just giving credit where it's also due)

It's so wonderful to see desi movies with no villain at all, like zero negativity... I liked the intensity, the breaking gender bias, the boldness, the backdrop of the scary Alzheimer's, and the predictable happy ending. It definitely left me with that unmistakable nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Musings

Vulnerability Is Strength            

                         

Almost seems paradoxical huh...to call vulnerability a strength. Vulnerability reeks of weakness, right. Or so we've been led to believe.

Vulnerability is so associated with fear, anxiety, shame and such .......that we are culturally tuned to looking at it as a weakness.

No one wants to talk about it.  Talking about it, means admitting to having it, and we don't want to. We want to pretend we're sorted, rational, strong....somewhere along the way forgetting that all that also embraces emotions, feelings and so to say, vulnerabilities. 

In order for connection we have to allow ourselves to be seen...really seen - Brene Brown

As children we use defenses to protect ourselves, handle our hurt....and as we grow the defenses seem to harden....become so much a part of us...we are groomed and conditioned. The walls are built.

As adults, can we use awareness...know that it's about accepting the all of us, and know that we have the strength to own and deal with all of us....vulnerabilities included.  

The basic axiom... how would I know joy if I don't know sorrow. A wall built to keep away fear, sadness whatever, will also keep away courage, joy..... Simple enough, right? Think of it as a scale....the extent or intensity to which you experience one is the extent or intensity to which you experience the other. 

Sure, exposing vulnerabilities can make you feel the fool...worst case..to say I love you when you don't know what can happen the other end, yes, can make you feel a fool. But would you rather live the experience or let fear make you bury it.

"We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions" - Brene Brown

How alive do you want to be. Do we need those defenses. When you block out feelings, you block out aliveness. 

Can we own all our feelings.....live more authentically. And that's where you'll likely also meet courage and strength.

Chitra Santhe

The pluses of having artist friends, or rather friends who are artists........ I attended the 'Chitra Santhe' this week. 

Chitra Santhe is this unique annual art festival held by Bangalore's Chitra Kala Parishad (an exclusive arts college). Sujata has displayed her own paintings there in earlier years, but this time round she chose to just visit, and I tagged along.

When she'd told me about the event, she'd said...it has this lovely buzz to it. And that's so true. The feel of the place.....the varying kinds of art on display....the opportunity to chat up with the artists....see some mind blowing pieces.... and generally partake of the creative energy of the place....it was an amazing buzz for sure.

All streets  that lead into Chitra Kala Parishad transform into an art bazaar of kinds for the day, with artists from across the country there to display their art work. There is music, there's food and there's lots and lots and lots of art.

Here are some pictures to give a direct feel of the event, and heads up, there are more than the usual, I could have easily put fifty instead of fifteen, and yet fallen short.

This was at Chitra Kala Parishad

Lovely landscapes, and that's the artist on the left

It was literally streets full of art

A beautiful landscape of Varanasi ( brought back the surreal feel of the place for me, and so earned itself a place here)

 She was painting even sitting in her stall...

Sand art in a bottle...was just so beautiful, it gave me goosebumps

Some lovely work with fishermen as theme. That's the artist by his work

This one was one of my favorites

 Micro art..jaw dropping work...all on a pencil lead

A detailed sketch

An amazing painting of Hampi

 A junk jewellery seller, as pretty as the art around

As real as it gets

And that's Sujata and me, enjoying some of the fruit chat after walking till our feet were oh, so sore

Sujata, that was a lovely experience, and it was especially nice to see it from an artists perspective, so a special thanks on that count too ( See, I'm sportive enough, long as there's no mountain trek involved :)

It's never enough

From Seth

It's not enough.

There are more people, better off, with more freedom, more agency and more power than at any other time in our history.

That's not enough.

As we use technology and culture to create more health, more access and more dignity for more people, we keep reminding ourselves how inadequate it is in the face of the injustice and pain that remains.

That's how we get better.

We must focus on the less fortunate and the oppressed not because the world isn't getting better but because it is.

It's our attention to those on the fringes that causes the world to get better.

French Kiss

The beauty of Paris...Meg Ryan's impish smile....or more of a sucker for romantic comedy than I thought,but I sat through the film. As predictable and cliched as it can get...yet can't say it didn't have it's charm.

             

Kate (Meg Ryan) overcomes her fear of flying and hops on a plane to Paris to confront her fiance who has confessed to falling in love with a french goddess. On her way she meets Luc, (Kevin Kline) a thief, who has hidden agenda being with her as he's used her bag to hide a necklace. And in the process he's helping her get her fiance back, and then they fall cutely and charmingly in love, Yes, it's as predictable as that.

Meg Ryan I guess just carries with her the feel of 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'When Harry met Sally', and that's enough to make you sit through. Anyways who's expecting suspense and deep thinking in Rom Coms. It's meant for mush and mush is what you get. And in this one, naive teenage mush at that.

And Paris and Cannes, I wish I could have watched in the theatre...they add as much as Meg and Kevin to the movie.

Autobiography Of A Yogi, Leads

Anyone who knows me, knows that 'The Autobiography of a Yogi' means a lot to me. A book that's been a huge influence...one that's answered a lot of my very basic questions.

                                         

My story with it started way way back.  I think in 1992, a friend gifted it to me, and I tried reading but didn't get through more than forty pages. That happened not once but thrice, each time I picked it up, I'd drop it at different stages. In fact I once read it all just to prove to him, or maybe myself, that I could, (lan, you even remember?) but honestly....it went pretty much over my head.

I finally cracked it (yes, I feel I cracked it :) about three years back, and have since read it multiple times.

That was context..back in the present....last week,  I was searching for a place to pick up a sandwich......I had been given directions, but I lost my way...like totally, and when I looked for coordinates, what should I find? That I'm on Paramahamsa Yogananda Road, (author of AY) a road which until then I didn't even know existed.

At that point it felt like the 9 ¾ platform out of Harry Potter.

And imagine my surprise when a couple days later I bump into this old friend, and we get talking about random stuff.......and she turns out to be one of the founding members of Ananda Sangha in Bangalore, the institute of Paramahamsa Yogananda. My antennae started to flutter.

I didn't even know what I wanted from it, I wasn't looking to do any more courses, nor yoga......but it felt like it was happening for a reason.

Well I called, and a quick chat with Anjali, who runs the place, and she's like.."aah, you've manifested what you wanted, we have just the thing for you in two days"   

I went..it was real close home and a two hour event, so didn't take too much thinking. It was a small group, varied and eclectic in background, but pretty niche in interest, almost like initiated and drawn by that one book.

In fact, just to be in a roomful of people who shared similar experiences with the book...... people who spoke of their experiences reading, difficulties finishing, people who've read multiple times, people to who it's a bible, people who talk of quantum mechanics and string theory and AY in the same breath. It in itself was quite an intriguing and fascinating experience. 

Even not knowing what they offered, I realized it had come as answer to a question I had in mind.

Ask and You Shall Receive 

Tools of Titans

A definitely worth-a-read article by Peter Diamandis, on Tim Ferriss’ new book 'Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons and World-Class Performers'       

                                                  

Peter Diamandis, himself is one of the hundred titans interviewed by Tim Ferriss for the book. 

The book has already shot to the top of the Best Sellers list (#4 on Amazon this morning… and climbing). 

Here he writes specifically the tools and tips from five people highlighted in Tim’s book: Tony Robbins, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman and Seth Godin.

Those five titans offer the following five nuggets:

• Morning priming
• Not waiting to pursue your dreams
• Conviction without stubbornness
• Stimulating the subconscious mind
• Starting extremely small

Morning Priming (Tony Robbins)

Tony Robbins introduced to me to morning priming years ago, and it has become a staple of my morning routine ever since. Upon waking, Tony immediately goes into his priming routine, which is intended to produce rapid change in his psychology and physiology. Tony says, “To me, if you want a primetime life, you’ve got to prime daily.” Priming with Tony’s method only takes around 10 minutes, and here are the three steps:

1.Expressing Gratitude (3 minutes): Tony describes this step as, “Feeling totally grateful for three things. I make sure that one of them is very, very simple: the wind on my face, the reflection of the clouds that I just saw. But don’t just think gratitude. I let the gratitude fill my soul, because when you’re grateful, we all know there’s no anger. It’s impossible to be angry and grateful simultaneously. When you’re grateful, there is no fear. You can’t be fearful and grateful simultaneously.”

2.Spiritual Exercise (3 minutes): Tony describes this step as, “Total focus on feeling the presence of God, if you will, however you want to language that for yourself. But this inner presence coming in, and feeling it heal everything in my body, in my mind, my emotions, my relationships, my finances. I see it as solving anything that needs to be solved. I experience the strengthening of my gratitude, of my conviction, of my passion…“

3.Three to Thrive (3 minutes): Tony describes this final step as, “Focusing on three things that I’m going to make happen, my ‘three to thrive.’ … See it as though it’s already been done, feel the emotions, etc.”

(My two cents: while all of these are familiar, remember that it's not just about thinking it, you need to feel it, feel it in every cell of your being, immerse yourself in it, it's not just at the conscious level, this needs to enter the subconscious stream. Thinking it takes ten seconds, he's talking three minutes...remember that)

There is No Need to Wait (Peter Thiel)

Peter Thiel’s contrarian ideas have become gospel in Silicon Valley. He has been an advocate of dropping out of school in favor of entrepreneurship, and there have been tens of thousands of applications for his Thiel Fellowship since he launched it in 2011.

Here is Peter Thiel’s answer to the question, “What do you wish you had known about business 20 years ago?”

“If you go back 20 or 25 years, I wish I would have known that there was no need to wait. I went to college. I went to law school. I worked in law and banking, though not for terribly long. But not until I started PayPal did I fully realize that you don’t have to wait to start something. So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months? Sometimes, you have to actually go through the complex 10-year trajectory. But it’s at least worth asking whether that’s the story you’re telling yourself, or whether that’s the reality.”

Strong Views, Loosely Held (Marc Andreessen)

This phrase was on Marc Andreessen’s Twitter bio for years. Marc’s explanation of this phrase in Tim Ferriss’ book is worth noting and internalizing for every entrepreneur:

“Most people go through life and never develop strong views on things, or specifically go along and buy into the consensus. One of the things I think want to look for as both a founder and as an investor is things that are out of consensus, something very much opposed to the conventional wisdom… Then, if you’re going to start a company around that, if you’re going to invest in that, you better have strong conviction because you’re making a very big bet of time or money or both. But what happens when the world changes? What happens when something else happens? That’s where “loosely held” comes in. People everywhere hate changing their minds, but you need to be able to adapt in light of new information.”

(My two cents: fit this also into everyday decision making 'if I make up my mind on Monday.... a factor changes on Tuesday....be willing to change your decision on Wednesday'. The consensus out there will not allow this easily, they will say 'but it was you who said......'. I've seen this happen even at personal and corporate levels. Something to watch for)

Give the Mind an Overnight Task (Reid Hoffman)

Reid Hoffman jots down problems in a notebook that he wants to his mind to work on overnight. This helps him ruminate over different ideas in his subconscious to start his next day primed with solutions. It was Thomas Edison who said, “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” Here is Reid speaking on his tactic:

“What are the kinds of key things that might be constraints on a solution, or might be the attributes of a solution, and what are tools or assets I might have? … I actually think most of our thinking, of course is subconscious. Part of what I’m trying to do is allow the fact that we have this kind of relaxation, rejuvenation period in sleeping, to essentially possibly bubble up the thoughts and solutions to it.”

(My two cents: Trust that the solution need not just come from your own subconscious space, if you can let it seep through enough, it can even dip into the collective consciousness, and there you have the world at your finger tips...not metaphorically but pretty literally)

To Create Something Great, Start Extremely Small (Seth Godin)

Seth Godin has authored 18 best-selling books on the way ideas spread, marketing and strategic communication. His ideas on “starting small to go big” have impacted me across all my organizations and companies.

In the word of United States Army general Creighton Abrams, “When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” Here is Seth Godin on starting small:

“My suggestion is, whenever possible, ask yourself: What’s the smallest possible footprint I can get away with? What is the smallest possible project that is worth my time? What is the smallest group of people who I could make a difference for, or to? Because smallest is achievable. Smallest feels risky. Because if you pick smallest and you fail, now you have really screwed up… We want to pick big. Infinity is our friend. Infinity is safe. Infinity gives us a place to hide. So, I want to encourage people instead to look for the small. To be on one medium in a place where people can find you. To have one sort of interaction with one tribe, with one group where you don’t have a lot of lifeboats.”

(My two cents: This one is brilliant, it's about taking full ownership and responsibility. Show yourself you can do it, show it in the here and now....the rest will follow)

As always, some of the most important learnings by the most brilliant people, are all about mindset.

Thanks for sending this Kiran, and once you read the book, send me more snippets.....the size of the book was crazy scary :)

Lost In Translation

A movie I've watched four times over the last ten years. Guess it's one of those that just grows on you. It's a fascinating film, maybe for all that's real....all that's not said...all that's felt...just there...just beyond. 

          

Bob (Bill Murray) is an American actor, in Tokyo to shoot an advertisement. Charlotte (Scarlette Johansson) is in the same hotel in Tokyo, with her husband, a photographer, who is out for a couple of days on a photography assignment. It's like two strangers who find something beautiful in an unusual and unlikely reprieve.

She is in her early twenties, and he is in his late fifties, and the whole dynamic is at one time a lot of things... fun, comic, intelligent, sad, romantic.....above all an undeniable connect.

The sequence of Bob shooting the whisky campaign ad with the Japanese team is simply hilarious. Yet there's a sad....a sad in how he is contemptuous of not just the advertisement or the shooting, but of himself too.... only too aware that he is using this as an escape from a marriage that is starting to sour. 

Charlotte on the other hand is this sweet, intelligent and thoughtful woman, who seems to be going through a parallel crisis of her own, more like a quarter life crisis, wondering at what she wants to be, what life means, about her marriage......and wondering if it will get better over the years. 

The relationship starts through a little eye contact, and then they start hanging out together......karaoke bars, drug parties, mostly the hotel bar......and they are soon sharing their innermost feelings, about their marriages, their fears, their happiness (un), all that deep stuff. You can feel the togetherness...but it's beyond a label.

The three days done, and they don't seem to even know how to say goodbye, because they don't know what they have, what they're saying goodbye to. Yet in the end, Bob runs after her and whispers something in her ear which brings out so much tenderness and joy, something we are not allowed to hear....and can only guess. In fact they become so real, that you'd almost think you were intruding if you heard. 

Just the length of my post would give you an idea of how real they became to me :)

Savithri - Narratives of the Heart

Sunday I got lucky enough to attend this surreally beautiful dance performance by Janani Murali.

It was titled 'Savithri - Narratives of the Heart', in Dance, Theatre and Poetry. It was an individual performance through bharatanatyam, with an ongoing beautifully scripted narration of the story, also weaving in Tagore and Aurobindo's perspectives on Savithri.

Savithri is a story from the Mahabharatha. Story goes that when Yudhishthira asks Markandeya, 'is there a woman more righteous than Draupadi....who surpasses her in beauty, grace, power and intellect, Markandeya talks of the princess Savithri. And when he asks, if she will then rule the lands, Markandeya says, 'no, Savithri is born to chart her own destiny'

Savithri falls in love with Satyavan, and though she knows that he is destined to die in a year, she still wants to marry him. And when an year later Yama (the god of death) comes to take Satyavan, Savithri talks him into giving her a boon. 

Yama says, 'ask for anything you want, except for the life of Satyavan'. And the story goes that Savithri then asks that she have a hundred children by Satyavan, and thus yet gets the life of Satyavan.

This is a story that was one of my childhood favorites from the Amar Chitra Kathas, I still remember the cover page.......and strangely enough, it's because I happened to mention that it's a favorite in a blog post last week, that I got an invite to this dance program :)

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Janani is a professional dancer with a strong lineage of dance. She has several performances to her credit, with even having danced at the Hampi Cultural Festival a couple of months back.

And playing Savithri, I'd say she was beauty, grace and intellect personified. Wonderful performance Janani, and hoping to see more !!

How Starbucks’s Culture Brings Its Strategy to Life

An Interesting read from the Harvard Business Review

                  

In most organizations, culture and strategy tend to be discussed in separate conversations. Executives know that culture is important and that a negative culture can hurt company performance, but they often don’t know what to do about it. Or they attempt to improve the situation by launching a culture initiative to “make the workplace more positive.” What most executive teams typically fail to do is to connect the company’s culture with how the company makes its strategy work.

Take Starbucks: The cafe chain positions itself not just as a seller of coffee but as an experience provider, creating a “third place” for conviviality beyond home and the workplace. Walk into a Starbucks anywhere in the world and you will find a consistently comfortable and welcoming ambiance. But you don’t get that simply by telling your staff to be warm and friendly.

Starbucks’ culture is powerful because it is tightly linked to the company’s distinctive capabilities. The feel of Starbucks stores isn’t created merely by the layout and the décor — it exists because the people behind the counter understand how their work fits into a common purpose, and recognize how to accomplish great things together without needing to follow a script.

Over many years, Starbucks has built a capability to foster a relationship-driven, employees-first approach, which encourages staff to form close bonds with each other.  At the height of the global financial crisis, when other companies were cutting HR costs wherever they could, Starbucks invested in staff training, including coffee tastings and courses that ultimately qualified for credit at higher education institutions. Former company president Howard Behar believed that employees who feel cared for will care about their customers. One former Starbucks worker noted that “nobody at Starbucks ever ordered anyone to do anything. It was always: ‘Would you do me a favor?’ Or something similar.”

While most organizations somewhat support the notions of diversity and inclusivity, Starbucks not only understands the importance of having staff of diverse backgrounds in order to create a welcoming environment for customers of diverse backgrounds; it has built the capability to deliver on that aspiration into its HR processes. Together, these capabilities enable Starbucks to deliver on its strategic goal of being that “third place” that customers value.

Companies whose culture and strategy are not aligned in this way often struggle to understand how they can make the linkage. Every company has its own distinctive culture — the reservoir of behaviors, traits, values and mind-sets that people in an enterprise share. But cultures are complicated, with hundreds of disparate elements. Often, these elements are not good or bad in and of themselves, but they have aspects with both positive and negative implications.

When most companies try to improve their culture, they focus on the negative aspects, and try to fix them. This sounds reasonable, but what we’ve learned is that the opposite approach is much more successful. You should identify a few positive attributes within your culture that are connected directly to your identity and the specific capabilities that are driving success in your business, double down on them and find ways to accelerate and extend them throughout the organization. Empower the critical few managers and employees who personify the best behaviors and can help you bring them to the forefront. Work on spreading the critical few behaviors that enable your strategy and counterbalance some of the negative aspects of your culture. Articulate—from the top down—the critical few attributes of your enterprise that people genuinely care about and that can help move your strategy forward. Great behaviors and attributes break down all the barriers to building your distinctive capabilities, and as they expand across the organization, they will squeeze out the negative aspects in your culture.

This relatively subtle approach has far more power than an unfocused “culture initiative,” because it lets people bring their own emotional energy to an enterprise where they feel they have a stake—and thus leverages the company’s culture to bring its strategic identity to life.