Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them - John C. Maxwell The current community trends shows very negative information floating around. It projects data as though the communities are becoming more and more self-centered and individualistic. I tend to agree with this generalization to an extent. We have become a lot self-centered than we were 30 years back. I do not want to delve on the WHY part but want to see how to improve the situation. With this as a background I did some research on how to change the way a community works. I wanted to get people to do more work such as getting them to come out on VOTE on election day, save water in their houses, give more to deserving charities, consume less electricity and finally keeping the office pantry clean by not washing their lunch boxes with left overs. In my current work place I tried to get many of the people to reuse the one-side printed papers and also to try and reduce the number of papers used in the printers. In order to get this program going, we introduced new initiatives and processes. It was all good but there was an inherent weakness in the system: PEOPLE. People needed to adopt this initiative for it to become a success. We made many colourful posters and employee reward programs for using less paper but I was not successful. The number of people who signed up for this initiative was very less but everyone kept saying it was a great initiative. So I went back to the drawing tables with a select team to think on how to get more participation. One of the members in the team suggested a small change. Instead of sign up portals, posters and email registrations, we just put up a small sign-up sheet near the printers and asked them to give their Name, employee number and sign it. Within a week the participation doubled. Wondering WHY?.
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Why Innovation? That is a question which comes to most of the people. Why can't people continue doing the same thing which is working. Well, Innovation has become necessary in today's competitive world where many industries need to get their operational cost and capital costs down if they need to stay competitive. The only way to get there is via innovation. Innovation doesn't just mean new ideas, process, product - it possibly involves technological transformation and management restructuring. Innovation also means exploiting new technology and employing out-of-the-box thinking to generate new value and to bring about significant changes in society. So why is it important? The conclusion is that the importance of innovation is increasing, and increasing significantly. In the current day economic scenario, innovativeness has become a major factor in influencing strategic planning. It has been acknowledged that innovation leads to wealth creation. Even though efficiency is essential for business success, in the long run, it cannot sustain business growth. Management expert Peter Drucker said that if an established organization, which in this age necessitating innovation, is not able to innovate, it faces decline and extinction. Research has indicated that competition combined with strong demand is a major driver of innovation. The intensity of competition is the determinant of innovation and productivity. So I have tried to summarize the 10 easy rules to become innovative and succeed in your actions. Since majority of the people are too busy to read - have tried to make this blog in a Video fashion. So kindly watch till the end and let me know your comments/thoughts. If you want to be a good person for your friends, you must first learn to be a good person to yourself. No matter what you think you can do through force of will, you can’t bring your best if you don’t put yourself in a position to be the healthiest version of you. It’s simple: healthy person impart healthy feelings, unhealthy person impart unhealthy feelings. It is quiet simple - if you cannot manager your thoughts effectively then how do you think you can manage all your relationships - spouse, friends, project teams etc. In short if you are not able to manage your thoughts then you become your worst enemy. We're our own worst enemy. You doubt yourself more than anybody else ever will. If you can get past that, you can be successful. This is one of Michael Strahan - An America Athlete's best quote. An it's your negative thoughts that hold you back, nothing else. In all the negative thoughts that can come to us, I have found that the below 3 are the most common thoughts that comes to you which prevents from from being effective. If you can find a way out to keep these thoughts out of your mind - then you will surely become a great person and find greater satisfaction in leading your life. Everyone would have heard about the Bermuda triangle, a place where ships and aeroplanes disappears without a trace. Most popular culture attributes this to various paranormal activities but those documents and data are not scientifically reliable. There is a similar workplace equivalent, a triangle where team work, good will and productivity vanishes without explanation. How many work hours on average do you and your team spends in this drama triangle? So what is that triangle? A triangle was developed as a social model years ago by Stephen Karpman, a student of Dr. Eric Berne, the father of Transactional Analysis. It maps out a type of dysfunctional interaction that is common in the workplace and in our homes as well. The word “dysfunctional” is not that bad one – it only means “not working well”. Many expert leaders notice when their relationship is working and when it is not going well … as a result, they learn to stay out of the drama triangle. Dr. Stephen Karpman first described the drama triangle in the 1960’s. All three of the roles--Victim, Rescuer, and Persecutor—are very fluid and can morph easily into one another. We all have a favourite (usually the role we assumed most often in childhood), but most of us are pretty good at all three of them, depending on the situation. Dr. Karpman used this triangle to define three points that arise predictably in any dysfunctional real-life drama: the Persecutor, the Victim, and the Rescuer. Notice that all three of these are roles we can choose to play, or choose to step back from, at any time. Examples of the drama triangle
So for instance, let’s assume that one of your team members promised you an update about an important project by Tuesday afternoon. It’s Wednesday morning. You don’t have the report yet. Here are three ways you could choose to respond:
My personal favourite is the Rescuer, although I also did a very credible Victim from time to time. While being a rescuer I always felt virtuous, strong, and necessary when other people asked for help. Being a rescuer always means that you take care of others that you do not find time for your needs. This is when you slip into the Victim’s role. I’d feel sorry for myself, since no one seemed to appreciate how hard I was working to take care of them. Which made me feel angry and resentful, and before I knew it I’d find myself picking a fight with my wife or fuming at some unwitting team member. (Yep, there’s the Persecutor.) The Millennials are next in line to run this crazy, messed-up world. Millennials, in my dictionary, are those born between the years 1995 and 2005, so this generation includes all those born after globalisation in India. There is, however, a serious problem with this generation that needs to be addressed, and that is their intense lack of dedication in anything. This problem stems from many factors of their different upbringings. Before I setup the context, I would like to spend some time on what dedication means to me. While searching the internet for some research material I accidentally fell upon this data - Ezra Pound's The Cantos is a 120-section poem which explores the author's controversial opinions on government, economics, war, fascism, and a whole lot of other seemingly non-poetic topics. Pound also famously spent 57 years on this collection, which was still unfinished at the time of his death. Leave the unfinished part but look at this man’s dedication to work on his goal for more than half a century. Mindboggling it is – I can’t even think of how he got himself to motivate for this long. Most of us would have given up within 5 weeks (MAX) from start of this poem collection of his. Another example (this time with a positive end) is “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell. It reportedly took journalist Margaret Mitchell 10 years to write and publish her staggering Civil War-era tome novel. I can only imagine her level of dedication. To start a project that would take almost a decade to complete seems almost incomprehensible to me with no surety that the outcome will become famous or successful or both. So is dedication necessary for all of us? Well to answer it plainly it is the only ingredient that you require for a guaranteed success. So what are some of the reasons why the generation of today are having less inclination for dedication towards work, play, life, family etc.? There seems to be clearly some kind of common trend across the globe. The possible causes may be [Spoiler Alert – A bit lengthy read but worth every word] |
AuthorVasudevan is a Leadership Mentor and an Executive coach. I run an online website geared towards helping creative entrepreneurs and future managers to build their dreams. Archives
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