Medici, Goa and a bit of Chindogu!
Last weekend, I was at The Goa Project, an annual pilgrimage for some 240+ oddballs from all over India, and some even taking a long-haul flight to get to Goa. Yes…“oddballs”…that’s the best I can describe a bunch of super enthusiastic, high-energy, talented, multi-faceted, young at heart and spirit
Time to throw away your Talent Pyramid
Ask any HR Manager on talent profile for their organization and you will get a ‘talent pyramid’ – an odd-looking ‘pyramid’ that is supposed to reflect the talent profile of the organization. Ask them further – what is the measure of ‘talent’ in this pyramid, and chances are 9 on 10 that the answer will be ‘experience’. This experience is typically the number of years of (supposedly relevant) experience in the workforce, and pretty much determines how roles, and consequently the compensation are derived out of it. Question is – is that the right measure of talent?
Initiative + Continuous Improvement => Superior Performance
Disclaimer: I got this in an email. This is not written by me, and is not my intellectual property. If you know the original source to it, I will be happy to link to it, and if it is copyrighted, I will be happy to seek permission to repost on my site, or take it off, as the case might be. I am sharing it here because I think there is good value in this illustration that everyone can learn from. I enjoyed reading it, and hope you enjoy too Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure the effectiveness of its employees. Employees are normally rated in most of the companies in the Good, Very Good, Excellent, Outstanding categories. Apart from the above, non performance category is also there, which is not depicted here). Needless...
Are you helping your competitors succeed ?
I just read a nice story on the home page of Luke Watson, and was struck by its ‘simple power’. It goes like this: A few years ago, there was story going around about a farmer who won a particular category in the Nebraska State Fair four years in a row, which is unheard of there. The local newspaper sent a reporter to interview the farmer to find out what he did to achieve such a feat. The reporter asked, “What’s your secret? Do you have any special corn seed?” The farmer replied, “Absolutely, I develop my very own corn #8221; The reporter said, “Okay, so that’s your secret - you developed your very own corn #8221; And the farmer said, “No, not #8221; The reporter exclaimed, “I don’t understand. What’s your secret, then?” The farmer said, “Well, I’ll...
Creativity at Workplace ???
Most of us have been told in our appraisal discussions to be more creative, and many of us have, in turn, told our team members to be more creative. Sadly, most of us have no clue what is really means to be creative at the workplace. We normally associate creativity with creative or performing arts - things that we did long back as kids but feel we can’t apply those principles at workplace. Is creativity limited to dressing informally, or calling people by nicknames, or is it installing the coolest screensaver, painting the walls blue, wearing pink socks or something else ? Definitely, some of them might be every creative efforts, but how do we channelize those creative energies and urges to solving little more meaningfull business problems ? As a manager, is ‘creativity’ available to me as a resource ?...