Saturday, April 27, 2013

Transformation

There was an animated cartoon on TV.  One of the scenes showed a huge cactus suddenly transformed into a flowering phenomenon. I never forgot how, within seconds, all the buds emerged and turned into colorful, open flowers.
This scene must have photographed in slow motion and was shown in fast motion. At our home, we have beautiful plants of followers. One of the plants is “Bramha Kamal”. There are different opinions about this species. Though this is widely known as “Bramaha Kamal”, few people claim that actually it is a type of cactus. This plant is not beautiful, with stem leaves.  It blossoms only for a day, with beautiful and nice fragrance. When buds comes, we try to catch the moment when a flower opens and it petals start to bloom. We always miss that, and all off sudden we see a big and beautiful follower.           
However for me, it symbolizes how quickly something that represents rigidity and pain can be transformed into beauty.
The same thing happens with human transformation.
You can never find out the exact event when it occurs. You might remember what happened before or after it, but never the moment of transformation itself.
Sometimes, somebody directly appreciates you about your changed behaviour and personality which you may not have noticed. We may have spent lot of time and efforts on our transformation, but it revels all of sudden.  As it happens in the NOW we can never track it down. Therefore it is magic.
Contrary to change, transformation is easy; as there is no effort involved; it just happens. Like the tree letting go of the dry leaf or the fruit ripening without struggle.
When you look different, you see what is already there, which you havent seen before. It is, therefore, effortless.
Transformation is a process, but it is effortless process. But you need actually to live the transformation like the flower blossoms from buds. Transformation can be small or big. Small learning also can be transformation. When child starts walking, this is also a transformation for him and for his parents. It has impact on their lives.
Our life journey is also a transformation. We become learned, Wise, mature over a period of time. We learn from mistakes and even from others’ mistakes.  Human life is with lot of transformations and transformations should be accepted and celebrated time to time.
But the question is do we allow ourselves to transform?  

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Mind Map

When I took a charge of establishing professional HR function in Sakaal Media Group (http://www.sakaal.in, also see:-http://esakal.com, http://www.sakaaltimes.com, http://www.agrowon.com, http://www.saptahiksakal.com) in 2005, it was a real challenge. Sakaal has the history of almost 80 years, known brand in media in Maharashtra and Goa with almost 2,500 FTES and almost 5,000 stringers and part time employees. My team had comprised with employees who were working for last 10-15 years and also employees who were hardly 2-3 months old in the organization (including me).
My first task was to map the current processes which were not even documented and to apply pragmatic HR processes. There were almost 20 team members from different locations in the meeting room. Team was dynamic and enthusiastic to learn new things.
My first challenge was to get new ideas and brainstorming was one of the tools to get good ideas. In a typical brainstorm new ideas come at random and totally unorganized, especially when the subconscious mind is being accessed. If you want an effective brainstorm, each idea has to be captured and written down first. Then only, ideas can be evaluated and organized in ‘lists’ as a next step.
I had heard in past about the technique called “Mind Mapping”. This technique was pioneered by a brain researcher, Tony Buzan.  This technique describes a special way of writing down ideas to create new and better ideas by providing new relations and insights.
A typical Mind Map looks like a neurological pattern of the brain, where branches with ideas, observations and insights spring from a core idea in the middle of the paper. A Mind Map is often a colorful drawing with words, pictures, doodles and symbols that provide readers with a quick and memorable understanding of the issues. Extensive research has not only shown that Mind Mapping leads to more and better ideas, but it also leads to a much deeper learning experience when used to learn complicated subjects.
Making a Mind Map is simple:
        Take a blank sheet of paper and describe the subject in a few words in the middle of the page.
·         Draw branches from the middle of the page to the side of the page and name each branch with a word (or a drawing) describing ideas, concepts or connections that are linked to the main subject.
        Each branch can create a new branch with a new word. The branch expanding process is unlimited.
        After creating multiple branches, take a complete survey of all branches and find synergies and relationships between the words, ideas, concepts and drawings.
        When the Mind Map has been finished you will notice that each time you review the picture you have created earlier, it will instantly trigger your memory and the key concepts of the Mind Map are easily remembered.
You will have different ideas when you use colored pens. The reason is that our brain associates colors with certain concepts (for instance ‘blue’ with ‘calm,’ like a calm ocean). These subconscious concepts trigger new associations and new ideas.
You can also this technique for Not taking, preparing for Speech, Lecture, Presentation and even discussion points.
There are few softwares for preparing your Mind Map.

(This is a Mind Map while we were discussing about Manpower Planning. This is a generated through software.)


Sunday, April 07, 2013

Story of Ramesh and Suresh…

What a presentation?

Ramesh was a senior sales manager and Suresh was his associate with product assignment. Once Suresh wanted to visit some customers in the area, but he had no any good presentation. He had no time to make the separate presentation. Hence Suresh approached Ramesh and requested him if he had any presentation available. Ramesh was good in preparing presentations. He had prepared a beautiful presentation for customers last month. He mailed the same copy to Suresh. Suresh also requested Ramesh to come along with him so that Ramesh could introduce some new customers to Suresh.
 At first customer, Suresh presented the presentation which was appreciated by the customer. Customer was impressed. Ramesh thought, “What Suresh did, just presented my presentation and he had taken all the credit.”  Now Ramesh started to become jealous.
Ramesh knew next customer very well. Ramesh introduced the Suresh, “This is my colleague, Suresh, he is responsible for so and so product; however the presentation what he would make now, is prepared by me.” Customer was surprised by such introduction and Suresh was unhappy. He though, yaa he prepared the presentation, but does it require to introduce in such manner? Ramesh understood his mistake and he thought that he would not make any mistake at next customer.
Ramesh was so disturbed that he could not take this from his mind. “I prepared the presentation and Suresh is just presenting, and customers are happy with the same, perhaps if I could have been involved in this.” He thought, he would not think anything about this presentation. He suppressed his thought about the presentation.
At next customer, who was again new to Suresh, Ramesh introduced, “This is my colleague, Suresh. He is responsible for the so and so product. About the presentation which he is going to make to you,” he paused and again spoke,” I will not speak anything about the same.” Customer thought, what a strange introduction.
Suresh was now very unhappy, “What is this Ramesh? If you don’t wish, I will not use your presentation.” Ramesh somehow managed to convince that it was not his intention. Ramesh now become very conscious about his speech. He told himself that he should not mention anything about the presentation. “Now I am not going to speak a single world about this presentation.”
At next customer, again new customer; Ramesh introduced Suresh to the customer, “This is my colleague, Suresh. He is responsible for so and so product.” He wanted not to mention anything about the presentation, but he could not control and suddenly, words came from his mouth, “About the presentation which he going to present, sorry, I can’t speak anything about this. I have made my mind not to speak anything about this.”
Just imagine the reaction of Suresh.

You may also like these.. please read