Communigator: April 2022

Monday, April 25, 2022

Notes on the Book- Measure What matters

It's important to re-assess your goals over time. Keep a keen eye on trends and market changes and make adjustments as necessary.

Risks are best taken keeping an organization's core capabilities in mind. Make sure you consider the available data and operate within your company's unique skill set.

Keep your goals simple and clear. Clear objectives are more motivating and sharable.

Invest time in understanding what motivates your individual teammates. Understanding their unique motivations can help you align their incentives with your organization's objectives.

Set goals that seem beyond reach. As a leader, your job is always to look towards what comes next, no matter how daunting or impractical.

People perform best when they feel valued. Offer feedback continuously and generously and encourage opinions and self-designed performance plans.

From OKRs-Objectives and Key Results to CFRs-Conversations, Feedback & Recognition, John Doerr crystallizes the crux of his learnings under Intel CEO Andy Grove and his management style

John Doerr illustrates with the example of Hewlett Packard and how a misstep caused it to falter. That it rose from the ashes to rule again is the positive spin.

Using the example of Google, John Doerr shows what makes companies wager on decisions that seem to put their future at stake. It is based on a series of calculated risk-taking that leans on the organization's core capabilities.

(Emeritus Insights on book Measure what matters by John Doerr)

I can be reached at gorask@gmail.com and whatsapp number 8800477973 for feedback, suggestions, ideas, collaboration, guest podcasts and other opportunities for working together.

My English Podcast "Lifebook" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora7

My Hindi Podcast "Kitabi Keeda" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora

Books written by me are available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notionpress sites.

https://www.amazon.in/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ASanjay+Gora&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

https://www.flipkart.com/search?q=sanjay%20gora&otracker=search&otracker1=search&marketplace=FLIPKART&as-show=on&as=off

https://notionpress.com/author/36667

Friday, April 22, 2022

PEOPLE WILL BE ENVIOUS OF YOUR MISERIES TOO

It sounds strange but it is true. We were a childless couple for 20 years till God blessed us with an angel for adoption. Being childless has its peculiarities in India. Some relatives avoided inviting us to auspicious ceremonies thinking of us as bad omen. Other close relatives did not send their children to our home presuming that we would do some black magic on them.

But the same relatives could be heard telling others about us that we have an easy-going and trouble-free life. Since we did not have a child, we could keep going on holiday trips and enjoy life. No responsibilities meant no life problems.

I often felt like telling these relatives to change places with us. Be childless, and enjoy life. But then I never gathered enough shamelessness to stoop to their level.

So, people will be envious of your miseries too. Life is really colourful.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Notes on Building Resilience 200422

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It will help improve your morale due to decreased stress, and improve physical and mental health.

Develop habits to maintain physical wellbeing such as exercise, eating well, limiting caffeine, nicotine and the benefits of mindfulness and sleep

There are tremendous benefits to taking care of your physical health including sleeping well, eating well, and moving on a daily basis.

Breaking poor habits such as drinking, smoking, and being sedentary will contribute to better physical and mental wellbeing.

Spending time in nature and in meditation helps restore and rejuvenate your physical and mental wellbeing.

Taking control of your thoughts helps you stave away negative beliefs and incorporate optimistic points of view. Incorporate optimism to allow you to take positive emotion and convert that into action.

Getting into the 'flow state' can help you achieve a greater sense of enjoyment and productivity. Learn new behaviors to help you get into the 'flow state'.

Develop the skills to eliminate negative thinking like jumping to conclusions, blaming yourself, or over-generalizing.

Have a clear life purpose, develop skills in self-management and appreciate and work with your emotions regularly.

Become aware of how you respond to stress in your mind and body. Learn not to judge your feelings and identify trends to help you respond to challenging situations more effectively.

Try people watching to understand how people behave - observe body language, tone of voice, eye contact, and more.

Developing personal relationships at work increases productivity, boost employee retention, safety, work quality, and customer engagement.

Take into consideration another person's point of view. This establishes trust and builds stronger connections.

Implement the habits and learn the behaviors required to manage stress, deal with adversity, and maintain your physical and mental well-being.

(Emeritus Insights)

Monday, April 11, 2022

Notes on Management 110422

As rational beings go, humans can be pretty irrational, found psychology professor Dan Ariely. Weighing in options while making decisions, we don't always act reasonably. How else do we explain wardrobes full of clothes we are never going to wear or buying things we don't need?

We are all freeloaders, analyzes Dan Ariely. At the mention of the word “free” our sense of judgment goes out the window and we lose all rationale to run after something that we perceive as valuable while costing us nothing.

A decoy is an option designed to drive you toward a particular choice. When considering a decision, be aware of the decoy option and make sure you make the decision you want.

The anchor data point in your decision making is the initial point against which you judge other options. Assess options based on merit rather than the anchor.

Often, you adopt a new behavior because other people are doing it. When confronted with a new option, question its relative merit; consider consequences and alternatives.

Free offers can lead to irrational purchase decisions. The cost of that decision in time, quality, effort, or space may be greater than money.

Non-cash rewards can be more motivating than money. Bring social norms—respect, time and appreciation—into your profession or work place to inspire trust and goodwill.

Procrastination is natural to the human condition. To overcome it, impose consequences for inaction and external accountability.

Pursuing every option is irrational and unproductive. To maxmize productivity, make decisions quickly and move forward.

Emeritus Book INsights on Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Notes on Book- Essentialism by Greg McKeown

More choices, social pressure, and the culture of thinking everything is possible make us susceptible to the paradox of success. More success translates to a loss of focus and eventually will lead to failure.

Define purpose by asking: what is my strength, and what success would look like.

Time to reflect is more important when you are busy. Simple activities such as reading, listening to music, or good sleep increase productivity and creativity.

The extreme criteria help choose by being super selective. Decide on a high bar and discard anything that fails to jump over it.

Walking away from failure is crucial to Essentialism. There are 3 ways to do this: Remember you are biased towards inaction, seek a neutral opinion, and ask how hard you'd work to save the project if you weren't already involved.

When saying no, separate the decision from the relationship, and say it without hurting feelings. In professional situations, ask what you can deprioritize if turning down is not an option, and always be helpful.

Foresight sets apart an Essentialist. Give yourself extra time to meet a deadline and be prepared to face the worst.

Sometimes rather than making overall improvements, fixing a problem that is blocking progress can improve the whole outlook. Don't look for quick fixes, remove the primary hindrance itself.

Figure out the least amount of work needed to get started and do it. Mark small wins with visual rewards.

Source-Emeritus Insights

Notes on Management 060422

Many organizations are able to define their strategic goals, but they’re unaware of how to execute those goals. The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers a proven set of practices that empowers leaders to execute their most important goals in the face of distractions.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers precise rules that help transform strategy into action at all levels of an organization. The first of these is to focus on ‘Wildly Important Goals. The second discipline of execution hovers around finding a few key activities that will bring maximum impact.Once you have identified your Wildly Important Goal and found the lead measures to achieve it, you need to ensure engagement. The last, but far from the least, discipline of execution centers around practices that drive accountability and follow through.

It is important to get your team’s buy-in to reap the advantages of the four disciplines of execution

According to the authors of The 4 Disciples of Execution, weekly review sessions for your Wildly Important Goals are critical for success. But these need to be fast-paced, following a set agenda and they must be actionable

The everyday chaos that surrounds a team can cause distractions and failure. To produce results, laser focus your team on the one or two Wildly Important Goals.

You can measure how well your team is meeting its goals in lead and lag indicators. Focus on your lead indicators but pay attention to lag indicators as well.

Make sure all team members know if they are winning or losing. Create a simple scoreboard that is visible to team members at all times.

Accountability means every team member makes a personal commitment to winning. Weekly W.I.G. review meetings can help you check accountability and take actions to move the lead measures.

To ensure that your weekly W.I.G. review sessions are effective, structure the session in three parts: reporting, reviewing the scoreboard, and checking that lead are positively moving the lag measures.

Educate your teams about the four disciplines. Implement the disciplines in stages from clarifying the principles and seeking commitment to launching, adapting, and optimizing performance.

Misinterpreting the W.I.G. framework can lead to pitfalls. Be sure to recognize the W.I.G. approach as a framework, pick strategic W.I.G.s, follow your lead measures, and use scoreboards appropriately.

(Four disciplines of execution. Emeritus Insights)

You will have to record your views on your mobile for 5-10 minutes.

Suggested topics are

What inspires, irritates and delights me.
Five Life Rules I live by
Five things I wish I knew when I was 22.
Five tips on parenting
People I am grateful to in my life and why?
Five lessons from my entrepreneurial journey.
Most unforgettable day of my life
Three stories from my life

You will have to speak/record monologue on one of these topics

Language has to be one, either English or Hindi.

For better audio recording, you may like to use Dolby on App.

Please record in flight mode to avoid disturbance from notification sounds.

Please start with 3-4 lines self introduction.

Friday, April 1, 2022

Notes on Human Behaviour 010422

From Mark Leary Lectures

There are more deaths by car accidents in a year than by snake bites. Yet we are not afraid to use cars but we are afraid of snakes. Reason is that fear of snakes has evolved overs centuries of existence of human life. Cars are a recent phenomenon, so there is no inbuilt evolutionary fear, so to say.

Only less than 1 per cent of our genes are different from other people, 99 % are same.. In fact, we share 98 % of our genes with chimpanzee,

Self-esteem is different from self-confidence. Latter is the belief that you can do certain things or that you can bring about certain outcomes. Self-esteem is not a belief, it is a feeling, or an evaluation that people have about themselves.

Schadenfreude is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is a borrowed word from German, with no direct translation, that originated in the 18th century.

Eudaimonia is a Greek word literally translating to the state or condition of 'good spirit', and which is commonly translated as 'happiness' or 'welfare'. In the works of Aristotle, eudaimonia was the term for the highest human good in older Greek tradition.

Flashbulb memory is a vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally significant and emotional event, often including such details as where the individual was or what he or she was doing at the time of the event.

The mere ownership effect refers to an individual's tendency to evaluate an object more favorably merely because he or she owns it.

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